Inducted in 2011
Firefighter
Restauranteur
Community Organizer

Induction Video

Patrick Joyce, a member of the Fordham Prep Class of 1988, was a Riverdale native. He and his twin brother, Peter, were born in 1970 to Patrick and Kathleen Regan Joyce.  Patrick, Sr. was a bus inspector for the Transit Authority and Kathleen was a homemaker.  

The Joyces would have four other children: Deborah, Julianne, Kathryn and Martin, Prep Class of 1984.

Coming from St. Margaret of Crotona Parish and School, Patrick would arrive at Rose Hill in September of 1984 to become a member of Mr. Hoogsteden's mentor group.  From the very beginning, Joyce would revele in the school’s spirit of fraternity and camaraderie and in the many friendships he would make along the way. 

In addition to working after school jobs throughout his high school, Joyce also made time to serve on the Prep's chapter of SADD, Students against Driving Drunk, and played for the rugby squad in an era when the Rugger Rams were still newcomers to the school's athletic program. 

Completing his Shea Hall years in 1988, Joyce stayed on at Fordham matriculating at the College. It would be right here at Rose Hill that he would meet Tara Maguire, the woman who would become his wife, early on in the Summer of '88 — just days, in fact, after his Prep graduation.

There was one thing Miss Maguire noticed immediately about Pat, even then: "He never sat still. Ever."

Coming from a large family, Joyce had helped put himself through high school and would do the same during his time in college. At 19, while still a full-time student at Fordham University, he was working as manager at Essen West, a glatt kosher catering business based in Riverdale. When he suddenly found himself presented with a business opportunity before he even graduated from the University, he struggled with the decision of whether to finish college or to start working full-time.

In the end, Pat was afraid of not taking a risk, and so he decided to plunge into the first of his careers — the restaurant industry.  In Tara’s words, “He didn’t want to miss a thing.”

During his time in the business, Pat would enjoy a 12-year winning streak of launching successful bars and restaurants in both Westchester and New York City. At the time of his passing, Pat and Tara's management company, Westside Hospitality, was directly overseeing operations at three establishments — Smith’s, Social, and Latitude. He was particularly proud of the fact that he had done the contracting work on Social himself.  In his wife's words: “He had a great eye for design and space, and he knew how to get those things done.”

In addition, Westside Hospitality would eventually take over the catering group at the Dunwoodie Golf Course, and rename it Social at Dunwoodie in honor of the Joyces' flagship venue in Manhattan.  According to his business associates, he had a phenomenal head for figures, and was completely in his element hammering out a deal with bankers.

One career, however, was not enough for Pat.

Early on in his 20s, already fully engaged in the restaurant and catering business, Joyce had made up his mind to take the Yonkers firefighter exam. He passed. 

By the mid-1990s, Pat was a full-fledged member of the Yonkers Fire Department.  At yet, putting in three shifts at the firehouse each week and still keeping up with his restaurant work, Joyce still felt there was yet more he could do in service of his community.  He would transfer to Rescue 1, the Department's special operations company, trained and equipped to tackle the most difficult and dangerous emergencies in the city.

Pat Joyce spent 10 of his 16 years as a firefighter at Rescue 1, where he was known as The Irish Prince.

But to his friends and colleagues Patrick was more than just a catering firefighter or a firefighting caterer — he was a man of character and loyalty and profound generosity. 

Throughout his adult life, Pat Joyce was deeply involved with the Ronald McDonald House of New York, an organization founded to offer emotional and financial support to children suffering from cancer and their families.  For years, Pat helped organize the group's Fun Run in Central Park and never failed to bring much-needed smiles all around.  And every year at the Ronald McDonald House Christmas party, he made sure that each child received a personalized gift, ensuring memorable moments in young lives filled with so much uncertainty.  Even years later, the parents of some of those seriously ill children would speak tearfully and gratefully of Pat's loving sensitivity.  "He expected nothing in return."

“Pat was a role model for many people, myself included:” the words  of Charles Mulcahey, Class of 1981 and a colleague of Pat’s at the Yonkers Fire Department. “He was a loving husband and father, a caring friend, a very successful businessman.”  As for Joyce's career with the Fire Department, Charles noted, “The Commissioner in Yonkers called him a ‘fireman’s fireman.’” Mulcahey, who named his son to honor Pat, added, “Patrick Joyce loved helping people. I didn’t realize the magnitude of this until after his passing. Countless numbers of people told me stories of how Pat had helped them with problems big and small. I know that Pat was the usually the first person I called whenever I needed help."  He went on to say, "Being so successful in business, Pat didn’t need to work as a firefighter anymore, but he loved it. Pat loved helping people; loved the firefighters.”

According to Joseph McGowan, a Prep classmate of Joyce’s, “Pat’s upbringing was deeply rooted in the Catholic tradition and faith. As a son of Irish Catholic immigrants, and a brother, and then later in life as a husband and father, Pat’s faith was an integral component of his life and the raising of his children. He was a person who knew well the importance of a good education, the benefits of working hard, and the value of a person’s integrity.”

But even beyond his years of service with the YFD, there is nothing that exemplified Pat’s dedication to the dictum of St. Ignatius that “love out to manifest in itself in deeds rather than words” more than his dedication to his wife Tara and their daughters Isabella and Charlotte.   His daughters were the great joy of his life, and by his own estimation, his greatest accomplishments.

Firefighter Patrick S. Joyce, YFD died in the line of duty on October 2, 2009 while searching inside a burning building for several people thought to be trapped inside. Intense heat had forced him from a third-floor window, and he did not survive the fall. The two firefighters who were with him at the time would live, along with all of the building’s occupants.

Thousands of firefighters attended his funeral at St. Margaret of Crotona Church in the Bronx.  Archbishop Timothy Dolan presided.

The Joyce Memorial Fund was established shortly after Pat’s death to honor his life. Its mission: to help fund The Ronald McDonald House of New York and the Tree House Bereavement Center of Westchester.

In 2012, Prep alums John Neary, Donn McNamee and the rest of the Class of 1987 endowed the Patrick S. Joyce '88 Scholarship to provide financial aid in perpetuity to Fordham Prep students in need.  In 2013, at what would have been Pat's 25th Prep Reunion, his own class, the Class of 1988, joined the '87 Boys in support of the scholarship fund in memory of their fallen friend and classmate.

To close: Joyce's quote from the 1988 Ramkin:

I am not a trophy; I cannot be won or lost.
Whatever will be, I've got to be me, and that's my choice.