Louis Pasteur Park

This ballfield honors the memory of Harry Ford (1951-2001), Thomas Holohan (1965-2001), and James J. Corrigan (1941-2001), three brave firefighters who ultimately died as they lived, risking their own lives in the hopes of saving others.

Firefighter Harry S. Ford was born in Astoria, Queens on June 5, 1951. His family moved to nearby Overbrook Street in Douglaston in 1956. At an early age, he would play in this park with his friends until dark. Ford played on the Bayside High School football team and graduated in the class of 1968.

After working in the film industry, he entered the fire academy in 1974 and subsequently worked in Ladder 11, Ladder 108, and in 1990 was assigned to Rescue 4. During his 27-year career as a firefighter, Ford gained the respect of both the officers and his fellow firefighters while earning numerous citations. A father to three children and loving husband, Ford always helped out with his sons’ sports teams. On Father’s Day, June 17, 2001, Harry S. Ford and two of his comrades died while fighting a fire in Astoria.

Thomas Patrick Jr. was born on January 5, 1965. A graduate of St. Mary’s High School in Manhassett and then Baruch College, he worked as a bank auditor for several years, Holohan went after his lifelong dream of becoming a firefighter, inspired by his grandfather Martin J. Sheridan, who had been a Battalion Chief in the F.D.N.Y.

A husband and father to three children, Holohan lived by the motto, “There is the easy way and the right way.” On the morning of September 11, 2001, he and members of Engine 6 were studying for the Lieutenant exam when the call came in that a plane had flown into one of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. Minutes later Holohan and his company approached the north tower, where he asked his comrades if they were ready to go in and there was only one answer, because these men never chose the easy way.

While Holohan and the other firefighters stormed into the burning towers that morning, James J. Corrigan was already inside. The 60-year-old Corrigan spent his life protecting people – first with the New York Police Department, then the Military Police, and finally for 25 years with the F.D.N.Y.  In 1994, Corrigan joined the Fire and Life Services at the World Trade Center. As he built a family with his wife and two sons, he continued to receive promotions and achieved the rank of Captain.

On September 11, moments after the impact of the first plane, Corrigan and three of his co-workers rushed to the building’s day-care center, saving the children inside. He then went down to the old fire command station, which lay unused since 1993, and attempted to activate the public address system to warn everyone to evacuate. As the tower fell James Corrigan spoke to his son, telling him that terrorists had attacked the city. 

This field, like many other landmarks through the city, is a small but meaningful tribute to the monumental acts of heroism exhibited by our city’s firefighters.