Director of Public Safety Fred V. Morrone

Fred Morrone, superintendent of police, was not in his World Trade Center office on September 11 but in a New Jersey office. But after the fist plane hit, he got into a car and drove to the Twin Towers. He was last seen near the forty-fifth floor of One World Trade Center, the first building that was hit. Port Authority employees evacuating their offices on the sixty-sixth and sixty-seventh floors said they passed Morrone as he was heading up, offering encouragement and help to everyone he encountered. Superintendent Morrone was sixty-three years old. He was born in Brooklyn, raised in Rocky Hill, New Jersey, and earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a master’s in Public Administration. His first law enforcement job was with the Franklin Township (New Jersey) Police Department. After that, he became a New Jersey State Trooper. One of his colleagues said he was a tough investigator and would never give up on a case. After Morrone was promoted to lieutenant colonel, he was in charge of the intelligence services and casino gaming sections. One of his last cases as a state trooper was the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, where he and three dozen other troopers were assigned to help the FBI. He retired from the state troopers in 1993. Three years later, Morrone joined the Port Authority. He is credited with starting many programs such as the Port Authority Police Academy’s residential training program, the International School of Airport and Seaport Security, bike patrols t the airports, a scuba team, a Commercial Vehicle Inspection Unit, and Airborne Services Unit, and a Motorcycle Unit. He also toughened training standards for recruits. Morrone was a member of the terrorism subcommittee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the vice president of the International Association of Airport and Seaport Police. He was on the board of directors for the New Jersey Special Olympics and on Seton Hall University’s Board of Advisors for the New Jersey State Police Graduate Studies Program. A Lakewood, New Jersey resident, Superintendent Morrone is survived by his wife, Linda, and three grown children, Fred, Alyssa and Gregory and two grandchildren