VIDEO: A man referred to in the FDNY as the ‘keeper of the legacy’ received a special honor on Tuesday. Lieutenant Joe LaPointe has served the FDNY as the officer in charge of special ceremonies like graduations and funerals for decades. As he nears retirement, the department that he served has proudly honored him. As the head of the FDNY Ceremonial Unit, he steps into place with precision and grace. “Our job collectively is to take the worst day of this family’s life and make it just a little bit better,” LaPointe said.
He said he’s witnessed a lot of swearing in and promotion ceremonies, graduations, memorial services and funerals. A critical turning point for him was September 11th, 2001. At that point, only a few people carried out these sacred duties until LaPointe got an unexpected call to head up the Brooklyn and Staten Island funerals. The department ended up losing 343 members. “I remember one day we had 25 funerals that day, so they sent us out in two-person teams and the guy that I was working with called and said listen I got the stomach virus, I can’t make it, alright so we’ll figure it out,” LaPointe said.
He said he handles each ceremony with the utmost care. “We show up at a church and maybe the local landscaper, our funeral is Monday and he’s not on until Wednesday, and the grass is a little bit of a mess, we’re mulching, we got out blowers, we’re sweeping,” LaPointe said. The team is now roughly 400 people. He got a surprise send-off before his final assignment in lower Manhattan on September 11. “They’ll carry on the tradition, I tell them my phone will always be on,” LaPointe said.
