A Female Captain In Policing's Male World

By Michael Thier | STAFF WRITER

September 21, 2001

Two years before Kathy Mazza charged into Tower One as part of Sept. 11's rescue effort, she stood in the Oval Room on the 43rd floor, being honored as New York City's Basic Life Support Provider of the Year.

"She was the person that breathed life into the Port Authority training program," said Marie Diglio, the New York City Emergency Medical Services Council's executive director of operations. "She ... made it something real."

Mazza, 46, a captain and the first female commanding officer of the Port Authority police academy, is among 37 officers missing in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Mazza and Lt. Robert Cirri were last seen by Officer Eugene Fasano, who was sent to retrieve Mazza's nursing kit. Cirri had just called his wife to say they were attempting to reroute victims who were unknowingly walking into a blaze.

"She was very proud to attain her rank," Fasano said, "very proud to be part of the Port Authority."

The Farmingdale resident's ascension in the ranks began more than 14 years ago, when she was an operating room nurse at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn. With a nursing degree from Nassau Community College and 10 years cardiothoracic nursing experience, she enrolled in the Port Authority police academy.

She was looking for a "more secure retirement" as she told Newsday in an interview last year. Christopher Delosh, 47, her husband of 16 years, is an officer in the New York City Police Department's 25th precinct.

After patrolling Kennedy Airport for a year, Mazza was quickly promoted to sergeant. She rose to lieutenant in 1998, and in April of last year became one of only two female captains in the Port Authority (there are 12 male captains).

"She's a woman in a man's world," Diglio said. "And she was tough as nails. She had to be so hard on the exterior. There was a suit of armor around her, because there had to be. But when you got to know her, she could be so funny, so lighthearted."

Mazza formed her tough facade keeping her three rambunctious brothers in line while growing up in Massapequa, her mother, Rose Mazza, 71, said. Kathy Mazza was the prankster of the bunch, and her lighthearted side was most evident in how she treated her nephew and five nieces, and her dog Petey, whom friends and family called "her child."

"She spoiled all of them," her mother said.

In 1992, Kathy Mazza underwent open-heart surgery to correct a quarter-sized hole. Exactly one year later, she was credited with saving her mother, who was complaining of chest pains. Mazza recognized that her mother's arteries were blocked.

"She saved my life," Rose Mazza said. "If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here today."

At least 14 New Yorkers can make the same claim. Mazza's 1997 initiative to train some 600 officers to use defibrillators in airports is credited with saving 14 to 16 lives, according to Port Authority estimates.

"She advanced so quickly in the police department, before you knew it she was something else," Rose Mazza said. "She said, 'I'll retire as police chief.'"