Daniel Edward Harlin looked forward to the start of deer-hunting season all year long. But when he and his friends finally arrived in the Catskill woods in November, he always offered up the best spots to someone else.
"He was a very unselfish guy," said Charles Foulds, who grew up with him and had hunted with him every year since they were both teenagers. "He never took the best for himself."
A quiet man with a contagious laugh, Firefighter Harlin, 41, had worked with Ladder Company 2, Battalion 8 on East 51st Street for more than a decade. But he loved the outdoors so much that he and his wife moved to rural Putnam County 10 years ago, settling in Kent, before having their three children. "He looked forward to taking the boys hunting when they got old enough," said his wife, Deborah.
This year his friends held their annual deer-hunting gathering in a Catskill cabin without him for the first time. "There wasn't a dry eye in the house," Mr. Foulds said.
New York Times
Published: December 19, 2001