Virtual Museum EMS History

"Anyone who has ever worked with Mark will tell you what a Huge Heart he had. Mark loved to Help others. He was more than your boss, he was your friend. I can't even count the number of times I went into his office just to talk, sometimes to cry, he was always there. We will always remember him as "Uncle Mark". We Love You Mark, may you rest in peace."
co-worker

Mark was an Emergency Medical Technician for Hunter Ambulance, and was dispatched to the scene on September 11. He was killed in the collapse of Tower 2. Anyone who ever met Mark will tell you that he had a huge heart. He was like a teddy bear. He was more than your boss -- he was your friend. I can't even count the number of times I went into his office just to talk, sometimes to cry. We will always remember him as "Uncle Mark."
Crystal Passarotti, co-worker

The hours were grueling: up at 4:30 a.m., home at 7:30 p.m. during the week, plus an overnight shift on Friday and back to work on Saturday at 3 p.m., until 7 a.m. Sunday. But Mark Schwartz, 50, an emergency medical technician, needed money for the house, the family's first, bought three years ago in West Hempstead, N.Y., and the vacations once a year with his wife, Patricia, and two children. The Schwartzes would have been married 25 years on Sept. 19, said their daughter, Jennifer, 23.

"I always knew that I could go to him if I had something wrong with me, and he'd know a little bit more about it than I did," Jennifer Schwartz said. "It was just like a thrill; he'd get so excited when he was going to help somebody."

Her brother, Andrew, 20, is studying to be a paramedic. "Dad always wanted to be a paramedic, but he never had time to go to school for it," she said. "My brother's going to fulfill his dream."

"It's just hard because my dad went to work that day, and he wasn't sick," she said. "He was going to come home. I guess that wasn't in his plan."