Former state trooper dies from 9/11-related cancer
ANSONIA — A state trooper who responded to calls for help during the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center has died from cancer.
Eugene Kenneth Baron Jr., who Ansonia Mayor David Cassetti said “comes from a long line of public servants,” died Monday. He was 56.
Gov. Ned Lamont Tuesday ordered all state and U.S. flags to fly at halfstaff in honor of Baron, who the governor said died in the line of duty from cancer as a result of his response and service in support of New York City in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Baron, along with other members of the State Police Traffic Services, responded to the World Trade Center to help search for survivors in the rubble and act as a liaison to those Connecticut families whose members worked in the building and were missing.
“That doesn’t surprise me at all that he would be there,” Cassetti said. “His father worked with my father on the Ansonia police before he joined the state police. Gene followed his father there.”
“Gene was a very intelligent man and very devoted to law enforcement,” Cassetti added.
Baron is the second member of the State Police Traffic Services unit to contract and die from cancer related to their rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center site in September 2001.
On May 31, 2018, Trooper Walter Greene, 51, of Norwalk, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, also died. Greene was part of a state police canine unit dispatched to the buildings’ rubble to search for survivors and bodies. He spent several days there.
Greene’s memory was honored during the 2019 CT United Ride, the state’s largest motorcycle tribute to those who died as a result of the terrorist attacks.
State Police Col. Stavros Mellekas said Baron served “this agency proudly and was a vital member of the State Police team. Our troopers put their lives on the line each day and now 24 have made the ultimate sacrifice.”
Baron was born in Griffin Hospital in Derby in 1964 to Eugene Baron Sr. and Maureen Comerford Baron grew up in Ansonia. He graduated from Notre Dame High School in West Haven and then Salve Regina College in Newport, R.I.
In November 1989, he entered the State Police Training Academy and graduated the following April. His first assignment was at Troop A in Southbury and later Troop G in Bridgeport. His last assignment was with the State Police Traffic Services unit.
As part of his work, Baron occasionally took to the sky to catch speeding motorists on Interstate 95 and the Merritt Parkway. With a fellow trooper in the pilot’s seat, Baron would clock speeders from a plane 2,000 feet above the highway, relaying the information to officers on the ground, as reported in The Connecticut
Post in August 2001.
Only days later, Baron was headed to ground zero in New York City.
In 2007, Baron retired with a partial disability as Trooper First Class as a result of his cancer.
“Trooper Baron contracted cancer while doing a job he loved,” said State Police Commissioner James C. Rovella. “His first concern on Sept. 11, 2001, was to help people affected by the terrorist attacks. He was always a trooper at heart and will be greatly missed.”
Lamont, when ordering the flags lowered until sunset on the date of interment, which is scheduled for Saturday, extended his deepest sympathies to Baron’s immediate family, as well as his Trooper family.
“Trooper Baron is a hero who not only dedicated his career to protecting the people of Connecticut, but he did not hesitate when called to respond to one of the worst attacks in our nation’s history,” Governor Lamont said. “He embodies the definition of public service and what it means to lead a career with integrity, respect, and generosity.”
Baron is survived by his three children, his partner and her two children, two sisters, and his parents.
Calling hours will take place Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. in the John T. Bennett Funeral Home, 91 North Cliff St., Ansonia. The funeral home advises anyone wishing to pay their respects must abide by the COVID-19 guidelines. That means those attending must wear masks and gloves and stand 6 feet apart. Only 10 people will be allowed in the funeral home at any one time.
Burial will be Saturday at 11 a.m. in Mount St. Peter’s cemetery, New Haven Avenue, Derby.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers donations be made in Baron’s memory to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the American Cancer Society in care of the funeral home.