Changed by 9/11: Family Honors Firefighter Father Through Charity

While many homes immediately felt the impact of the roughly 3,000 people killed on Sept. 11, the effects hit some homes later than others.

Marty Simmons, a 16-year New York City firefighter and Nesconset resident, died July 21, 2008 while on vacation with his family in Lake Tahoe. The late firefighter drowned after complaining to his son about his inability to breathe.

“As soon as he reached my son he said, ‘I can’t swim with you, I’m having trouble breathing.’ He was trying to swim to shore, we were on a boat anchored at a beach … we threw him a life flotation device, my sister was on the phone with 911, I was getting her kids back on to the boat and it looked like he was continuing trying to swim to shore and he just sank,” said Judi Simmons, Marty's wife.

Prior to 9/11, Judi said her husband was in optimal health, but was diagnosed with asthma following his working at Ground Zero.

“He developed a cough that was just constant, never went away – if you didn’t hear him coughing you would think it was strange. In 2005, his pulmonary function tests through the fire department started plummeting… 2005, 2006, 2007 his lung function was deteriorating rapidly,” she said.

In the years after Marty’s death, Judi and her three sons – Joe, Kevin and Ryan – have used their energy to focus on helping others, something Marty did as a youth sports coach in numerous leagues throughout the town.

Summer fund raising barbecues for the Marty Simmons Memorial Fund has helped pay for defibrillators for Smithtown East and Smithtown West lacrosse, for the coaches to receive CPR and AED training, for little league registration for local kids who cannot afford to play and more.

Outside of sports, the fund gives away a scholarship every year to a Smithtown East and a Smithtown West student, and has put TVs and couches in East to start a junior-senior lounge.

Selfless acts have become more than a coping mechanism to deal with the loss of a loved one, they have become a way of thinking, a way of life.

“Sept. 11 taught my children so much compassion and empathy that I believe they are better teenagers for it,” she said.