Archives of the Mayor's Press Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Monday, December 10, 2001
Release # 392-01

Contact: Matthew Higgins / Peter C. Fenty (212) 788-2958


MAYOR GIULIANI SIGNS BILL ADDING THE NAME "FATHER MYCHAL F. JUDGE STREET"
TO WEST 31ST STREET, BETWEEN 6TH AND 7TH AVENUES, MANHATTAN


The final bill before me is Introductory Number 981, sponsored by Speaker Vallone in conjunction with my Administration. The bill would add the name "Father Mychal F. Judge Street" to West 31st Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues, in Manhattan.

Father Mychal F. Judge was born in Brooklyn on May 11, 1933. He was received into the Order of Friars Minor, the Franciscans, in 1954 and was ordained a priest in 1961.

Father Judge worked in a variety of assignments until 1986 when he was assigned to St. Francis of Assisi Church on 31st Street in Manhattan. As a priest at St. Francis, Fr. Judge was often in the service of the City. He celebrated Mass in Police Officer Steven McDonald's hospital room after Officer McDonald was critically wounded by a criminal's bullet. He also helped to counsel the families that lost loved ones when TWA Flight 800 exploded over Long Island.

But it is for his service to the City as a Chaplain in the New York City Fire Department that he is best remembered. From 1992 until the very moment of his death, Father Judge acted as priest, counselor and friend to countless City firefighters and their families. Dozens of times, he said funeral Masses for those lost in the line of duty and prayed with the widows and children left behind. He became an institution in the Department, a firefighter in the garb of St. Francis.

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Father Judge responded to the emergency at the World Trade Center with his Department as he had responded to dozens of other calls before. There, on his last run, he became a casualty of war. He died in a hail of falling debris while working as a firefighter and as a priest simultaneously, administering the Last Rites to a dying brother firefighter. By chance, Father Judge became the first officially recorded fatality of the attack-he who had put himself last, in the service of others, was first.

Today we will mark with his name the street outside of both the church and the firehouse where Father Judge lived and worked. His memory will be treasured there by his brother priests and firefighters and by all New Yorkers and Americans.

It is my honor, therefore. to name West 31st Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues, in memory of Father Mychal F. Judge.

I will now turn to the bill's sponsor and to any other elected officials wishing to speak on this matter.

I will now turn to the general audience.

There being no one else wishing to speak and for the reasons previously stated, I will now sign the bill.



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