Edward A. "Ted" Brennan

Soon to be out of a job. Technology doing you in. Another job isn't going to be easy to find when you're an anachronism in a corrupt field---especially one as corrupted as government bonds. You're 37---not young, but not old enough to die yet either.

How many of these victims went to conservative Catholic colleges? 'College of the Holy Cross' in this case. It can't be an accident of geography---or upper-middle-class Long Island/New Jersey ethnic striving---so if it's a nexus it must be the Jesuits. I guess then, it goes without saying that the 'abbey' part of Portsmouth Abbey School is not vestigial.

And how many of these nearing-middle-aged men appear to have never wed or fathered children? In those cases, they also seem often to be fit and trim too. [And I know a beard when I see one. Look at the interesting sentence construction behind, "tradition of life at his family home in Sea Girt," Did somebody say "traditional family values?"]

I just remembered! I have a first cousin from the Chicago area who I wasn't very close to growing up, who, as a paper boy for the Tribune, won a scholarship to go to prep school in Connecticut (Pomfret, I think,) and then went to work for Cantor in the 80's, but left before 2001. His was a very Catholic background.

I invited him to my 25th birthday party in 1982 when he first started living in Brooklyn, which was his first exposure to my "life style," and he avoided me like the plague ever afterward. His father subsequently didn't snub me so much as run away terrified whenever he saw me. Cousin, interestingly, never married, got fat, and joined AA---but at least he had the moral guts to quit Cantor, if not live out any of his other truths.

None of this feels organic any longer. (Contest?! Prep school?! Chicago Tribune?!) If you succeeded at a place like Cantor, you did so at the expense of your soul, be it Jewish or Catholic. Case closed. The exciting ferment in the environment that everybody stresses as I read the obituary pages is the tumult of evil. Not necessarily apparent when first starting out in a career, but universally the whole point of the exercise by their end: it is a test. Will we corrupt or not, and to what degree,

I had my test at age 22, and for all these years I thought I'd failed it. I can see now that I passed with flying colors. My mom passed hers too, around 1982.


Ed Brennan

Date of Birth: April 28, 1964
Department: Government Bonds
Position: Vice President

Edward A. "Ted" Brennan, III was born on April 28, 1964 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The oldest of four children, he grew up in Sea Girt, New Jersey at the Jersey Shore, a place Ted loved, was so proud of, and where his parents still reside.

Ted graduated from Portsmouth Abbey School in 1982 and the College of the Holy Cross in 1986. Following graduation he began his career on Wall Street at Drexel Burnham Lambert, and for the last eleven years was a Vice President, Institutional Broker and Salesman at Cantor Fitzgerald. Like so many others at Cantor, Ted survived the 1993 WTC bombing by running down 105 floors to safety. He formed very close bonds with his co-workers, and thoroughly enjoyed life in New York City where he kept an apartment on the East Side. Almost every day after work he and John Farrell were off to the gym to work out.

What he cherished most though was the comfort and tradition of life at his family home in Sea Girt, New Jersey. Ted took great joy in the things that filled his days - time spent with his family, friends, and his fiancee Meghan Daly, several rounds on the golf course, and working out at the gym. Ted was fully committed to all of it, from the countless hours spent perfecting his golf game to his unwavering devotion to those he loved.

Ted embraced life and people recognized that. His sharp mind and quick wit made him magnetic, people just liked being around Ted. We will remember and love him forever.