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Always an Altruist

It was not Shimmy D. Biegeleisen's daughter who was getting married, but that was not the kind of detail that could have stopped him from playing an essential role in the festivities.

Mr. Biegeleisen, 42, helped his niece Estee Berger prepare for the event last June by helping figure out the seating arrangements and making sure everything else was taken care of. And at the wedding he was a backup host, chatting with guests and dancing with children, recalled Shelley Berger, Mr. Biegeleisen's sister.

"We remember how extraordinary he was, in a very ordinary way," she said. Mr. Biegeleisen, thoughtful and sensitive, tried to respond to the needs of friends and family ‹ from letting a new mother who worked with him at Fiduciary Trust telecommute, to making sure that Estee's husband, Zevi Brodt, had the sports section to read in the morning when the newlyweds were living in his Brooklyn building.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 16, 2001.