Sergeant Robert M. Kaulfers

Port authority

Sergeant Kaulfers's Act of Heroism

Over 400 first responders lost their lives on September 11, 2001. Heroically performing their sworn duty, these firefighters, members of the NYPD and PAPD, and numerous other rescue workers will forever be remembered for their sacrifice.

My Hero

Cookie Kaulfers does not remember her first day at Aldene Elementary School in Roselle Park some 39 years ago. But the fourth-grader made quite an impression on a little boy who would grow up to be her husband. "He remembers because I moved from Newark, and he remembers when I started school that day. I was a new person in town with a different name," said Luz "Cookie" Kaulfers of Kenilworth, yesterday. "We've been friends since we were little."

Her husband, Port Authority Police Sgt. Robert Michael Kaulfers, 49, died in the line of duty, having rushed from Hoboken to New York shortly after learning of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center. He dashed in to help and has not been heard from since. His body has not been recovered.

"He was wonderful. Everybody loved Bob. He had a sense of humor. He did all the parties for the retired cops, wrote parody songs . . . He was kind of the life of the party," she said.

Sgt. Kaulfers was repeatedly described as a loyal, honest family man and a devoted police officer by those who knew him. He especially took an interest in the new police officers. "He really related to all the rookies," Cookie Kaulfers said. "He was a cop first. He was always out there doing more and more than he should have. I was always afraid that something would happen. "You live with that kind of thing your whole life when you're the wife of a police officer," she said. "But I never imagined this." The Kaulfers, parents of two, recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.

His mother, Julia Kelly Kaulfers of Roselle Park, remembers a "good boy" who loved his family, played football and Little League baseball and decided in his late teens to study criminal justice.

The Port Authority promoted him to sergeant in January 1996. From there he was assigned to the bus terminal in New York City and the PATH train. He began his career at the authority in 1979 as a facility operations agent. Before that, he was an investigator for the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office's Narcotics Task Force, from 1976 to 1979. He graduated Trenton State College in 1975.

Besides his wife and mother, Sgt. Kaulfers is survived by two children, Timothy, 22, and Meredith, 18; his father, Arthur; two sisters, Susan Nerbak and Carol Visconti; two brothers, Jack and Edward, and two nieces and four nephews.

Profile by Debra Dowling published in THE STAR-LEDGER.
Information courtesy of the Remember 9/11/2001 memorial site on legacy.com