David Paul Derubbio
David Derubbio…. The Joker… The Milk Hound…A Father… A Brother… An Uncle… A Husband… A Son… A Friend.
David P. DeRubbio was born in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn. He moved to Sunnyside in 1987 and returned to Brooklyn the following year, living in Dyker Heights before settling in Bensonhurst in 1997. He was known as "Crazy Dave" or "Crazy Uncle Dave" to his family.
The fifth of seven children, David, handsome, with bright blue eyes and a hearty laugh, was known as the family cutup. He loved to make people laugh and often made himself the butt of the joke. A Brooklyn firefighter, he was known for doing everything he could to bend the family rule against profanity up to the point of nearly breaking it. To avoid using one profanity at home, David would say, "What the H-E- double hockey sticks is going on?"
He was also a factory of “nicknames”. It seemed his day was not complete unless he was sure that everyone had a nickname. "Dave was an experience," said Angela Tiberi, his younger sister, who had the pleasure of being nicknamed "Witchie Poo"
One of his greatest pleasures was his 12 year old daughter, Jessica, and yes… she had nickname too… David called her Pestica. I was especially touched when I discovered that he had painted a cloud mural on her bedroom ceiling of their Bensonhurst home, just for her… One of many things a father would do for his child, not knowing that such a small gesture of love would be something that would show his daughter how much he loved her later on.
Mr. DeRubbio, 38, was a lot like me, a bit of a milk hound. His mother often joked about buying a family cow just to meet the demand. Myself, I could go through a gallon a day. My wife knows how she feels.
While researching David’s life, I found something that my family can relate to in regards to myself, which brought my heart even closer to David because it began to seem that at every turn, he was a lot like myself. Such as the memory that his sister has about a family get together, when everyone was trying to watch television, David broke into a lounge singer impersonation and belted out a rendition of “Mack the Knife.” “It was so stupid, but it was so funny,” said his sister, Angela Tiberi. He was the one who consumed the room, she said. The one the party couldn't start without. "He was a presence all his own." She said his “bright blue eyes were so full of life and his smile irreplaceable.” His wife, Lorraine, called her husband the funniest person she ever met. “He made me laugh more than anyone,” she said.
To the delight of his friends and family, none of this stopped after David, who, after a series of jobs including a food delivery service and United Parcel Service, followed three of his four brothers into the fire department. David had always wanted to follow in the footsteps of his three firefighter brothers: Dominick, of the 22nd Battalion, West Brighton; Anthony, of Engine Co. 235, Brooklyn; and Robert, of Engine Co. 248, Brooklyn. On Aug. 12, 1998, he realized this ambition when he graduated from the Fire Academy and was assigned to Engine 226, the same company he would return to two years later.
As part of the Fire Department's rotational training program, David was first assigned to Ladder Co. 20 in Manhattan, then Engine Co. 290 in Brooklyn, before returning to Engine 226. "He was a great guy to work with and fun to be around," recalled Mike Mason, a firefighter with Engine 226 who worked with David as a "probie." After their rotation period was over, they were reunited.
Mr. Mason humorously remembers that when he first returned to the company he accidentally injured his ankle while exiting the fire rig. The unit transported Mr. Mason to a local hospital and David carried his red-faced friend into the emergency room, laughing all the while at his predicament. When Mr. Mason was turned away, David lifted his injured friend up again and brought him to another hospital.
At DeRubbio's graduation ceremony, Angela remembered her father, Albert DeRubbio, overhearing a man saying, "Now I have two sons to worry about." DeRubbio responded, "Now I have four."
"It's always in the back of your mind that my brothers have dangerous professions," said Angela. "It's scary, even more so now." Angela said that the close-knit family has pulled even closer together, and don't take each other for granted anymore. There are more kisses and tears to go around. "We say, 'I love you.' We don't leave things unsaid," she said.
David is remembered as a devoted Rangers fan who proudly wore the hockey team's logo on his fire helmet. But his 12-year-old daughter, Jessica, is an avid Islander fan, making for some memorable good-natured clashes between father and daughter. Mrs. DeRubbio warmly recalled that her husband would "suffer" through an Islander game with Jessica so that he, in turn, could take her to a Rangers game to see a "real team" play. His love of hockey was not confined to being a spectator. David also enjoyed hitting the ice with his fire lieutenant, Dan Nelson, at a rink in Long Island, and was a former member of a hockey league based in the Staten Island War Memorial Rink at Clove Lakes Park.
In his leisure time, David enjoyed reading from his collection of Mad magazines and listening to heavy metal music, especially Ozzy Osbourne. And when he wasn't rooting for the Rangers, Yankees or his favorite NASCAR race driver, Bill Elliot, David could be found tinkering around with his car or helping a neighbor. "He would do anything for anybody," said Mrs. DeRubbio. "He was always fixing everybody's cars."
Lorraine “Lori” DeRubbio was introduced to her husband through a high school friend when she was 16 years old. They began dating five years later in June 1988 and were married in February 1989.
On Sept. 11, Mr. DeRubbio kissed his wife goodbye at 7 a.m. as he left home to begin his 12-hour shift with Engine Co. 226, in the Boerum Hill section of Brooklyn.
"See you later," were the last words he would ever say to her. David ‘s unit would cross the Brooklyn Bridge at about 9 a.m. that morning, with a full view of the horror they were about to face at the Twin Towers.
Crazy Uncle Dave is survived by his wife, Lorraine, his daughter, Jessica, his sister, Angela Tiberi, and his brothers, Dominick, Anthony and Robert, surviving are another brother, Albert; his parents, Albert and Marion DeRubbio, and another sister, Mary Lee Ianno, as well as many other extended family members and a multitude of friends.
David was known as a man who wouldn't hesitate to help someone in need. And that selfless nature prevailed the day the World Trade Center was attacked.
Prior to this project, I did not know David. Now, along with his friends, family and hopefully yourself, I will never forget.
