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The Luckiest in the World

She always had time for a friendly chat with the corner newsdealer and the counterman at the deli, and she was sometimes forgetful about paying parking tickets and bills. But Gertrude Alagero, nicknamed Trudi, was also a determined competitor. After she taught her fiancé, Peter B. Walther, to snowboard, she never let him beat her when they raced down Okemo Mountain in Vermont.

Ms. Alagero, a senior vice president at Marsh Private Client Services, a division of Marsh & McLennan, and Mr. Walther, who was her supervisor before they began dating in 1998, had planned to marry in Boston on Jan. 5.

A few days before the terrorist attack, Mr. Walther said, she pressed her fingers to his mouth while they were walking toward the subway from their Upper West Side apartment.

"Shhh," she said, "I need to tell you something: I am the luckiest woman in the world."

On Sept. 7, the day that Ms. Alagero turned 37, she gave Mr. Walther a Nikon camera so he could become adept at using it before their honeymoon in Africa. He snapped two rolls of pictures, mostly of her.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 19, 2001.

Gertrude Alagero,

company executive

By Globe Staff, 9/19/2001

Gertrude M. Alagero of Saugus and New York City, a senior vice president for Marsh Private Client Services, was killed in the terrorist attacks Sept. 11 at the World Trade Center in New York. She was 37.

Miss Alagero was born in Winthrop and raised in Saugus. She was a 1982 graduate of Saugus High School. She received a bachelor's degree from Providence College in 1986.

Miss Alagero was senior vice president and practice leader for Marsh Private Client Services in New York. Her office was in the World Trade Center.

She leaves her fiance, Peter B. Walther of New York City; her mother, Marie (Daily) of Saugus; and three brothers, Stephen A. of Reading, Charles T. of Andover, and Paul J. of Washington, D.C.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday in St. John the Evangelist Church in Winthrop.

Editorial Obituary published in THE BOSTON GLOBE on September 19, 2001.