James Barkocy, Huntington volunteer EMT who worked at Ground Zero, Wall Streeter, professor, dies at 78

When terrorists attacked the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, James Barkocy was teaching at St. Joseph’s University in Patchogue. After learning Suffolk County was sending ambulances into Manhattan, he called the Huntington Community First Aid Squad.

"He never hesitated," said his wife, Nancy Barkocy, of Huntington. "He just said yes."

Barkocy, a longtime Huntington resident who spent more than four decades as a volunteer EMT and later brought his Wall Street experience into the classroom as a professor, died July 31 at 78 after years of illness, including a rare cancer his wife said was related to his work at Ground Zero, as well as prostate cancer and Parkinson’s disease.

'Like a second family'

Service had been a constant for Barkocy since his teenage years. He and Nancy Barkocy met while volunteering at a hospital on Welfare Island, now Roosevelt Island. After moving to Huntington in 1978, he began looking for a way to give back to his new community and joined the Huntington Community First Aid Squad in 1980.

"It almost became like a second family," Nancy Barkocy said. "If they needed something, he was there for them. ... It was a major part of his life."

Barkocy became an EMT and later an EMT critical care provider and advanced life support preceptor for Suffolk County, training other emergency medical providers. He also served as captain and treasurer, chaired the squad’s bylaws and standard operating procedures committee and twice served as president, from 1989-93 and 1997-2000.

Brian Canty, president of the Huntington Community First Aid Squad and a longtime friend and colleague, said Barkocy brought a measured approach to leadership.

"He never lost his cool and he was always calm," Canty said, "but he made sure that everybody understood their role."

Barkocy also helped obtain Industrial Development Agency financing that made construction of the squad’s Railroad Street headquarters possible, said David Mohr, who served with him on the building committee.

Mohr, of North Carolina, a longtime squad colleague who succeeded Barkocy as treasurer, said Barkocy’s mentorship extended beyond squad business. After Mohr, whose father died when he was young, admitted he did not know how to tie a necktie for a business event, Barkocy told him, "Come on over, I’ll teach you how to tie a tie."

"What person do you know that would do that for someone they really just met?" Mohr said.

From Wall Street to the classroom

Born Feb. 1, 1948, Barkocy graduated from St. Francis College and the NYU Graduate School of Business. He spent more than 35 years on Wall Street, including as an economist with Brown Brothers Harriman.

After retiring, he began a second career at St. Joseph’s University in Patchogue, where he taught for 20 years.

Eileen White Jahn, executive dean at St. Joseph’s and a longtime colleague, said Barkocy used stories from Wall Street coupled with a dry sense of humor to make finance approachable to students.

"He let people love finance who never expected to love finance," Jahn said. "He was very fair. He demanded a lot of work, but he was very clear about what his expectations were."

Students also leaned on him for advice about graduate school and life decisions, Jahn said.

"There were always students lined up to see him," she said.

Barkocy rarely called attention to the ways he helped others. Jahn recalled encountering him at a blood center in Huntington and discovering he regularly donated platelets, something he had never mentioned.

"It was ingrained in him that if you could do something for other people, you would do it," she said.

Even after long days commuting to Manhattan for work and countless hours volunteering with the first aid squad, Barkocy was rarely idle at home, his widow said.

"He was always into some home improvement project," Nancy Barkocy said, including laying a large herringbone-pattern brick patio that remains at the family’s Huntington home.

Barkocy is survived by his wife of more than 55 years; daughters Jennifer Barkocy, of Chesterfield, Missouri, Lauren King, of Cheshire, Connecticut, and Katherine Drysdale, of Cold Spring; and three grandchildren.

Visitation was held on Aug. 4 at M.A. Connell Funeral Home in Huntington Station, followed by a funeral Mass on Aug. 5 at St. Patrick’s Church in Huntington. Donations can be made to the Huntington Community First Aid Squad.