On His Last Day in Office Mayor Giuliani Attends Firefighter Graduation at Brooklyn College

Giuliani reacts to a thunderous standing ovation and shouts of "Ruu-dy Ruu-dy" from an appreciative crowd of firefighters..

December 31, 2001 A beaming Mayor Giuliani spent part of his last day in office at Brooklyn College, presiding over the graduation of 309 probationary FDNY firefighters. The 2,400-seat Whitman Hall was filled to capacity for the two-hour ceremony, which started off with a short video praising Giuliani’s work on behalf of the Fire Department during his eight years in office and his steadfast leadership after September 11.  At the end of the video, Giuliani was introduced to the audience to the strains of Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does It Better” and received a noisy standing ovation.
   “I can’t tell you how much I love this department,” the outgoing mayor confessed. “There’s something about your uniform that does it for me.
    “But the people who really deserve the credit here is not me, and not you, but your families who support what you do,” said the mayor, who had just come from the Staten Island funeral of firefighter John Schardt. “You all know why you are called to do what you do, but your families are left at home to worry, to watch you leave for work, and worry until you come home. They deserve a round of applause.”
    The mayor also reflected on the events of September 11 and the heroic response of so many New Yorkers in the face of unprecedented adversity: “When I saw the dawn come up the next day on the city of New York and I realized that the same New York was still here, I realized that we are the strongest city in the whole world. And one of the reasons that we are the strongest city is that we have, without any question (and everyone else in the world now knows), the very, very best fire department in the whole world."
    The ceremony marks the completion of a thirteen-week training period for the “probies,” as they are called. A further thirteen weeks of on-the-job training follows, but an early graduation ceremony was scheduled for this class so the outgoing mayor could preside. As the graduates walked on stage to receive their diplomas, each stood with Mayor Giuliani and Commissioner Von Essen to have their photo taken.
   The New York City Fire Academy, located on Randall's Island, customarily conducts its commencement ceremonies at Brooklyn College, as do the New York City Department of Corrections and dozens of New York City high schools and middle schools. In November the mayor attended a Fire Academy graduation at Whitman Hall where six probationary firemen who lost their lives on September 11 were honored, and their diplomas were given to their families.

As one of his last acts in office, outgoing Mayor Rudolph Giuliani presides over a Fire Academy graduation at Brooklyn College's Whitman Hall. Also present were 309 graduating "probies" and a few thousand friends and relatives.