The premature deaths and "unfulfilled dreams" of 2 Moore Catholic alums inspire a scholarship foundation

Tuesday, January 22, 2002

By DAVID ANDREATTA
Advance Staff Writer

Whoever said two wrongs don't make a right never met the Gullicksons and McGuires.  Beset by tragedy, intertwined by faith and tempered by love, these two Staten Island families have set out to right the ultimate of wrongs and seem to be succeeding.

Theirs is the story of two tragedies, a quarter century removed, both in the month of September.

The first was a fatal car accident that claimed the life of 17-year old Travis resident Daniel McGuire on Sept. 30, 1976.  The second was Sept. 11, 2001, when Fire Lt. Joseph Gullickson never returned home to West Brighton from the rescue effort at the World Trade Center.

At the center of it all was Bob Gullickson, best friend to Danny and big brother to Joe; and Jim McGuire, Danny's kid brother and Joe's lifelong friend.  Now the two men, separated by a continent but connected by commitment, have combined resources to keep the memory of their brothers alive in the form of a scholarship for students at Moore Catholic High School, which Joe and Danny attended.

"If there was ever a situation where negatives were turned into positives, this is it," said Gullickson 45, an engineer who lives in West Brighton two doors from his brother's home.  "The foundation is an act of love that is meant to perpetuate the spirit of Joe and Danny."

Even the name of the organization, The Maverick Foundation, intimates the way Joe Gullickson and Danny McGuire lived their lives:  As independent leaders who resisted adherence to the status quo.  The Mavericks is also the nickname of the Moore Catholic athletic teams.

Danny, one of eight McGuire boys, was a track star at Moore Catholic who had a contagious laugh.  His ability to poke fun at himself also revealed a confidence and maturity scarcely seen in teen-agers.

Before he entered his senior year at Moore, it became apparent that his family might not have the money to pay for tuition.  Inspired by Danny's leadership as co-captain of the track team, members of the squad raised enough money to keep Danny in school and on the team.  He would have graduated in 1977.

"In a family as large as mine, everybody has their strengths.  But we always felt Danny was the complete package, that he had all the strengths.  In many ways he was like the best McGuire brother," said Jim McGuire, 37, who lives in San Francisco and works in Silicon Valley.

Much like his big brother's best friend, Joe Gullickson marched to the beat of his own.  He was fond of playing Gen. George Patton's famous speech to the Third Army before it swept across Europe on his tape recorder.

"If you can't handle the roar of the big guns," Joe used to say, "get off the main deck."

After graduating from Moore in 1982, Joe was a patrolman with the New York City Police Department before being called to the Fire Department in 1988.  The husband and father of two daughters, Joe was a lieutenant with Ladder Co. 101, Brooklyn.

Sadly, Joe's widow, the former Naoemi Perez, also lost her father, Jose, on American Airlines Flight 587 when it crashed in Queens on Nov. 12.

"It's hard to make sense of it.  Sometimes I feel like an outsider looking in asking, "When is life going to be happy again?"  Gullickson said.  "He was my best friend as we got older, we shared a lot of laughs, our kids got together.  That's a big hole to fill."

Still, Gullickson and McGuire and trying.

Their quest began when Gullickson received a letter from McGuire expressing his condolences for Joe's death.  Although they had not seen each other since McGuire left for San Francisco in 1988, the two men bonded in the wake of the World Trade Center disaster and met over Thanksgiving.

"It all started from the idea that we needed to make something good out of all this,"  McGuire said.  "The rest just flowed."

Soon after, a board of directors was chosen.  Sitting in for McGuire is his older brother Sean, a retired New York City police officer who now resides in Manhattan.

The Maverick Foundation will agree to fund a prospective Moore Catholic student for four years, provided he or she embodies the traits of leadership and commitment to community that Joe Gullickson and Danny McGuire possessed.

The chosen student must maintain a minimum grade-point average of 85 percent and a pledge to volunteer 10 hours per month for the duration of their time at Moore.

Applicants must be Staten Island residents and active in extracirricular endeavors.  For its inaugural year, at least, The Maverick Foundation will only consider students with a parent employed in the emergency services field, such as police officers, firefighters and paramedics.

"We're not necessarily looking for the student with 95 percent," Gullickson said during a recent board of directors meeting.  "We want a student who will give their all, meet the challenge we present and stay true to themselves."

The requirements will be incorporated into a comprehensive federal program known as the Gold Medal Level Congressional Award.  Established in 1979, the program recognizes the initiative, achievement and service of young people.

Thanks to an outpouring of support, The Maverick Foundation is already self-sufficient through 2010 – enough to fund the high school careers of seven students at roughly $5,000 per year.  The foundation's board of directors is currently fine-tuning its fund-raising strategies to keep the scholarship afloat eternally.

"All we really want for these young people is for them to realize their potential," Gullickson said.  "These guys had a lot of unfulfilled dreams."