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CWA Family Lost Two in Attack on World Trade Center
One CWA family suffered a double tragety in the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York City. Tina Grazioso, a former US Airways employee and member of CWA Local 1171 in Syracuse, N.Y., lost both her husband and brother-in-law at the World Trade Center, reported local President Rose Mary Nickerson.
Tim Grazioso, 42, and brother John, 41, were born in Clifton, N.J. Both brothers played varsity football at Clifton High School. Tim attended Pace University and became a certified public accountant. John went to Mercer County (N.J.) Community College then earned a private pilot’s license at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. Because it would have taken another six years to earn a commercial license, he took other jobs.
John worked his way up from ramp agent to customer service representative to supervisor at Piedmont Airlines, and in 1985 met Tina Lytle, recently reassigned by Piedmont to Newark from South Carolina. They married after a five-year courtship.
Piedmont became USAir, then US Airways, and more than six years ago started laying off workers due to financial troubles. By then Tim, who commuted home to Florida on weekends, had become chief operating officer for over-the-counter trading and chief Nasdaq trader for Cantor Fitzgerald Securities at the World Trade Center. He steered John, who had by now become a licensed stockbroker, to a job as a bond trader at Cantor. John soon moved to eSpeed, a Cantor Fitzgerald subsidiary.
Tim was at work on 104th floor of the World Trade Center the morning the two planes hit; John worked on the 105th.
In the days following the attacks, family members attended Mass and did their best to comfort one another. As told by reporter George James in a New York Times account, Tina ultimately had to explain to her children, “there’s a chance that it might be God’s time to take Daddy to Heaven and turn him into an angel.”
John Grazioso is survived by his wife and three children, Kathryn, 7, Kristen, 5, and Michael John, 17 months; a sister, Carolee Azzarello, a former New Jersey state social worker and CWA member; his mother, Sandy Grazioso and his father, Henry Grazioso.
Tina Grazioso, who watched the World Trade Center crumble from Newark Airport, where she worked, was furloughed as US Airways laid off 2,700 employees in the wake of the attacks.
Tim Grazioso, 42, and brother John, 41, were born in Clifton, N.J. Both brothers played varsity football at Clifton High School. Tim attended Pace University and became a certified public accountant. John went to Mercer County (N.J.) Community College then earned a private pilot’s license at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. Because it would have taken another six years to earn a commercial license, he took other jobs.
John worked his way up from ramp agent to customer service representative to supervisor at Piedmont Airlines, and in 1985 met Tina Lytle, recently reassigned by Piedmont to Newark from South Carolina. They married after a five-year courtship.
Piedmont became USAir, then US Airways, and more than six years ago started laying off workers due to financial troubles. By then Tim, who commuted home to Florida on weekends, had become chief operating officer for over-the-counter trading and chief Nasdaq trader for Cantor Fitzgerald Securities at the World Trade Center. He steered John, who had by now become a licensed stockbroker, to a job as a bond trader at Cantor. John soon moved to eSpeed, a Cantor Fitzgerald subsidiary.
Tim was at work on 104th floor of the World Trade Center the morning the two planes hit; John worked on the 105th.
In the days following the attacks, family members attended Mass and did their best to comfort one another. As told by reporter George James in a New York Times account, Tina ultimately had to explain to her children, “there’s a chance that it might be God’s time to take Daddy to Heaven and turn him into an angel.”
John Grazioso is survived by his wife and three children, Kathryn, 7, Kristen, 5, and Michael John, 17 months; a sister, Carolee Azzarello, a former New Jersey state social worker and CWA member; his mother, Sandy Grazioso and his father, Henry Grazioso.
Tina Grazioso, who watched the World Trade Center crumble from Newark Airport, where she worked, was furloughed as US Airways laid off 2,700 employees in the wake of the attacks.