By Tom deignan

It didn’t seem to surprise anyone who knew Eamon J. McEneaney that when he was in the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993, he was among those who emerged from the frightening conflagration as a hero.

McEneaney, all of whose grandparents came to the U.S. from Ireland, worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, and eventually rose to the position of vice president. When a bomb exploded underneath the twin towers that snowy February day nearly 12 years ago, McEneaney did not panic. Instead, he led 60 coworkers through dark and smoke-filled stairways to safety.

It was just the latest extraordinary accomplishment in what had already been a full life.

McEneaney attended Sewanhaka High School in Elmont, New York. It was there that he developed a passion for lacrosse, a sport which he dominated at the collegiate level in the late 1970s. 

McEneaney eventually led Cornell University to consecutive NCAA championships in 1976 and 1977. Those same years (as well as 1975) McEneaney was named a First Team All-American, and in 1977 he was Division I player of the year.

All of this to go along with his accomplishments on the football field. McEneaney was one the Ivy League’s top wide receivers in 1976.

At Cornell, McEneaney also met his future wife Bonnie, with whom he would eventually have four children, Brendan, Jennifer, Kevin and Kyle.

For all of his accomplishments on the athletic field, McEneaney also had a more private passion, one which he had nurtured and developed since high school back in Elmont: poetry. McEneaney loved reading and writing poetry and was particularly inspired by what friends have termed “all things Irish.”

McEneaney stuck with lacrosse — as well as poetry — after graduating Cornell. He was the head coach at Syracuse. However, Wall Street, Cantor Fitzgerald and the 105th floor of the World Trade Center soon beckoned.

Of course, so did tragedy. On September 11, McEneaney died with so many of his coworkers.

The Eamon J. McEneaney story could have ended there. Instead, his wife, children and friends have worked tirelessly to spread Eamon’s well-documented good will and love for life.

An annual scholarship was established at his old high school, Sewanhaka, for the students who best exemplify the qualities that McEneaney possessed — integrity, honesty, compassion and sound character.

Then, another scholarship was endowed at Cornell. And in the tribute McEneaney himself might have appreciated most, a memorial reading series bearing his name was established.

In fact, there was perhaps only one thing McEneaney would have loved to see more. And that would be his poems published. 

Recently, thanks to his wife Bonnie as well as a circle of friends at Cornell, that wish became a reality. A Bend in the Road: Poems by Eamon J. McEneaney was published by Cornell University Library.

The poems reflect McEneaney’s many interests — sports, family, humor, city life and, of course, “all things Irish.”

The cover of the book itself is a beautiful photograph from William Huber entitled “Rural Road in Ireland.” 

In a brief foreword, Kenneth A. McClane, W.E.B. DuBois professor of literature at Cornell, even compares McEneaney’s poems to those of Yeats.

“Like Yeats, McEneaney imagines the world awash in splendor, politics and announcements; like Yeats, McEneaney knows that the mythic is tied to history and the heart,” wrote McClane.

But there is also a sense of mortality, of an obsession with death, in other McEneaney poems, something which surely grew heightened following the 1993 Trade Center bombing.

Consider “Salmon,” in which McEneaney manages to perfectly balance a feeling that life is both meaningless and meaningful.

“We are only but the salmon / In the stream / Fighting the currents of life / So that we may provide only / The initial breath for our / offspring.”

In a touching Introduction, Bonnie McEneaney writes what perhaps all of McEneaney’s readers should feel.

“Although published posthumously, this book of poetry brings to reality one of the dreams (Eamon) had — to publish his poems so that they could be shared with others, and be a frame of reflection. His poetry serves as a reminder of the fragility of life, that each day we are given is a precious gift — this should never be forgotten.”

(Contact Sidewalks at tomdeignan@earthlink.net)