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Host of Patio Parties

Daniel Afflitto loved to show off his large new house in Manalpan, N.J. There was the tree-trimming party, the barbecues, and over Labor Day weekend, a luau, complete with pina coladas and a hula dancer. "His was the place where everyone went, to take a swim, watch a game, and hang out on the patio," said his father, Joseph T. Afflitto.

But Mr. Afflitto, 32, was also a hard worker, often putting in 12-hour days at Cantor Fitzgerald, which made him a partner in 1999. On Sept. 10, Mr. Afflitto and his wife, Stacey, flew home from Santa Barbara, Calif., after a friend's wedding. His wife had wanted to extend their trip, but "Danny hated taking days off," she said. On the plane, Mr. Afflitto guessed that she was pregnant with their second child, but the home pregnancy test she took that night turned out negative. On Sept. 12, however, Mrs. Afflitto found out that her husband was right.

"God is giving me something," she said, "because he took something away."

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 20, 2001.

Daniel T. Afflitto, 32, a dedicated Cantor Fitzgerald partner

Hours after the workday ended and traders filed out of the World Trade Center to catch the evening train, Daniel Thomas Afflitto usually could be found in his office at Cantor Fitzgerald.

That was where the dynamic businessman maneuvered the market until he became a director and then a partner with the firm. It was also where, on the 104th floor of the North Tower, he met and hired a trader who would one day become his wife.

On the morning of Sept. 11, after the first hijacked jetliner crashed into the building, Mr. Afflitto, director of listed equity trading, called his wife, Stacey, and told her there had been a bombing, said his father, Joseph Afflitto of Wayne.

"He told her, 'We've been bombed and I'm going to get out of here. I love you and give a kiss to my son for me,'" his father said. That was last time anyone heard from him.

Born and raised in Wayne, Mr. Afflitto, 32, attended Wayne Hills High School and graduated from Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia in 1991. As a freshman at the university, Mr. Afflitto was invited to lead the Crimson Key Society and become a main recruiter for the school after a conversation with the college president, his father said.

"That's the way people reacted to Danny. It was only his first year of college, and after a couple of minutes of talking to him, the president wanted him to represent the school," Joseph Afflitto said. "He didn't want to be a lawyer like his father and his older brother. He wanted to go out on his own, and we're very proud of him."

Mr. Afflitto hired his future wife, Stacey, as a trader at Cantor Fitzgerald in 1996. When they started dating, she adhered to a company policy that prohibited dating among co-workers, and left the firm to become a floor broker.

He became a partner with the firm in January 1999 and the couple married four months later. Last year, they moved to Manalapan and had a son, Daniel, now 7 months old. Two days after the terrorist attacks, Stacey learned she was pregnant again, Joseph Afflitto said.

"Danny always talked about wanting 10 kids, but he never even got to know she was pregnant," said his father.

Mr. Afflitto also is survived by his mother, Eleanor; his brother, Joseph Jr.; his sister-in-law, Lisa; three nieces; his in-laws, Pat and John Rizzo; his brother-in-law, John Rizzo, and his sister-in-law, Dianna Rizzo.

Profile by Giovanna Fabiano published in THE STAR-LEDGER.