Kristen Mary Clark, 9/11 responder, student, dies at 28

Kristen Mary Clark of Melville, who battled cystic fibrosis for most of her life, died of the disease Thursday. She was 28.

Diagnosed at age 1, Clark spent most of her life in and out of hospitals and dealing with the disease, her father Nick Jacobellis said.

Clark underwent a double lung transplant in 2002, just short of her 21st birthday. She needed a second left lung transplant in 2009.

"She was just someone who, despite her limitations, made the most out of life," Jacobellis said. "She was the best at everything she did."

Clark graduated from Half Hollow Hills High School West in 1999 and joined the Melville Fire Department as an emergency medical technician.

She remained at the department for four years before resigning for health reasons.

Clark was one of the first people in her department to jump in the ambulance eager to get to Ground Zero on 9/11, her father said.

"She couldn't wait to get on the ambulance and get over there, that was her," he said.

Clark loved horses, her father said. She had her first riding lesson at age 7. She later owned several horses and won ribbons at the Hampton Classic and Lake Placid horse shows.

After she graduated high school, she went on an eight-day horseback riding tour around the Ring of Kerry in Ireland with two friends.

She attended Stony Brook University, graduating with a degree in history.

She went on to receive her master's in American history from C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in 2009.

While working on her master's, Clark developed an interest in law and enrolled in Hofstra Law School in September 2008, Jacobellis said.

Clark met her husband, Daniel Clark, in 2003 and married in October 2006.

"He was devoted to her," Jacobellis said. "He took all this on."

Besides her husband and her father, Clark is survived by her mother, Judy Jacobellis of Melville; and her grandmothers, Maureen Carley of Huntington Station and Phyllis Jacobellis of upstate Durhamville.

Visitation will be today from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. at M.A. Connell Funeral Home, 934 New York Ave., Huntington Station.

A Mass will be said Monday at 9:30 a.m. at St. Elizabeth's Church in Melville.

Donations in Clark's memory can be made to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, 425 Broadhollow Rd., Suite 318, Melville, NY 11747.