Gary Box, 37, worked several hands-on jobs that might have become careers had they been challenging enough. It wasn’t until he became a FDNY probie in 1996 that he knew he had found his calling.
At the firehouse he earned a reputation as a prankster. He convinced the men of Squad 1 that he had been a barber in a funeral home before joining up. He inflicted quite a few Mohawks instead of crewcuts before he became skilled enough with the scissors that they bought him a barber chair for the firehouse. Box left behind two children under 5 on 9/11.