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Mike Arczynski (1956 - 2001)
Executive, skier, 9/11 WTC victim

A Tree for an Outdoorsman

Mike Arczynski's family will plant a tree next spring in his memory, and that seems exactly right. Mr. Arczynski, 45, was born to be outdoors. He was an aggressive but graceful skier, the sort people would stop to watch, said his wife, Lori. He grew up in wild places, first in Canada, and spent much his childhood in Australia, where his father was an engineer helping build a dam on the Snowy River.

When in London, where he and Mrs. Arczynski lived for nine years before returning to New York last year, the Alps became their playground. Back in the United States, he loved where the family settled, in Monmouth County, N.J., partly because from there he could take a bracing, high-speed ferry ride every day to work across New York Harbor to his job as a senior vice president at Aon, in 2 World Trade Center.

But the family is in a quandary now about what kind of tree would best represent him, Canadian Maple seemed perfect at first. "But I like the idea of an evergreen, too," his wife said.

Source: Polish-American World, Oct. 19, 2001

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