Remembering 'Chappy'

Bruce Douglas Boehm, known as “Chappy” to his close friends and family — a nickname he’d been given by his co-lifeguards at Nassau Beach, for the way he kicked his feet when he walked, much like comedian Charlie Chaplin — was killed on Sept. 11, 2001. He was working then as a full-time broker at Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm that stretched from the 101st to 105th floors of the World Trade Center’s north tower. Boehm was working on the 104th floor that day.

Six-hundred fifty-eight of 960 New York Cantor employees were killed on 9/11.

For Boehm and his wife, Irene, Sept. 11 was supposed to be filled with warmth and happiness, not fear and tragedy. It was their 19th wedding anniversary — they were married on Sept. 11, 1982 — and they were planning a romantic dinner.

For Irene, Sept. 11 is now bittersweet. “As horrible a date as it is, it is also the date of one of my happiest days in my life,” she said.

Boehm and Irene met the night before Thanksgiving in 1980, at the Sports Page Bar in Woodbury, which no longer exists. Irene’s sister’s sister-on-law introduced her to Bruce, and they began dating in January of 1981.

“For me, it was love at first sight," Irene said. "I said, ‘Hello,” and then told my friend, ‘I just met the man I am going to marry.’ Of course, Bruce had no idea.”

The two were engaged nine months later.

The Boehms had two children — Brittany, now 26, a registered nurse at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, and Stacey, now 23, a registered nurse at North Shore in Manhasset. They lived in Valley Stream for one year before buying a home in 1987 in West Hempstead, where Irene and Stacy still live today.

Boehm was born in Rockville Centre in 1952, and grew up in Franklin Square — where his mother, Dorothy, 90, still lives. Boehm loved the ocean, and that adoration translated into a job as an ocean lifeguard for nearly 17 years — from 1970 to 1986 — at Nassau Beach (now Nickerson Beach).