A house-grown hero who spent 92 days working at Floor Zero within the aftermath of 9/11 died in a crash on a Bronx bridge simply months after profitable a prestigious nationwide award for his substance abuse counseling.
Anthony Kohl, 59, an Military veteran and grasp plumber who overcame his personal substance abuse points to turn out to be a mentor to others, was killed final month on Metropolis Island Bridge when the moped he was driving residence from work struck an SUV.
“We knew he was getting an award, but we really didn’t know the scale of it,” Kohl’s son Mark Kohl mentioned about watching his father obtain the nationwide Peer Specialist of the Yr award from the Nationwide Council for Psychological Wellbeing at a conference in Philadelphia in Could.
“I couldn’t have been more proud of him. I can’t put the words into how proud we were to see that.”
As a peer specialist, Kohl used his personal historical past with substance abuse to assist individuals at present coping with habit and to attach them to assets.
“Anthony was one of the most unselfish persons I encountered,” mentioned Debbian Fletcher-Blake, president and CEO of VIP Neighborhood Providers, the place Anthony labored. “He motivated everyone — staff, trainees, visitors, partners and clients. His presence was larger than life.”
Kohl lived on Metropolis Island just some blocks from the bridge, the place he crossed over the median and collided with a 2025 Nissan Murano headed in the wrong way at about 3:35 p.m. Sept. 3, in line with cops.
The 38-year-old driver remained on the scene and has not been charged. He was not harm within the crash.
Medics rushed Kohl to Jacobi Medical Middle, the place he died.
Kohl was a star soccer participant as a defensive lineman at George Washington Excessive College in Washington Heights, the place he was raised. However at residence, life was a wrestle.
“We all had a rough life,” mentioned Kohl’s sister Alyssa Kohl. “Our mother died early. Growing up in Washington Heights, there was a lot of things going on during that time. I wasn’t being well taken care of at the time. And he just took it upon himself to take care of me.”
Upon graduating from highschool, Kohl instantly enlisted within the Military. When he received out at age 20, he received guardianship over Alyssa, who was 10.
“He took me, and he got us a better place to live, got me in school, helped me manage my diabetes,” mentioned Alyssa, who has Sort 1 diabetes. “He took me to doctors appointments. You know, stepped up as a brother, and just looked after me and was good to me.”
To help his household, Kohl grew to become a grasp plumber. He received married and had his first son, Mark, in 1991. A second son adopted shortly after.
“My dad was my football coach, basketball coach, baseball coach. I mean, if it was a sport that I played, he coached, whether he knew the sport or not,” Mark mentioned. “He was the greatest man I ever met.”
Alyssa lived with the household till she graduated highschool and went off to school.
Courtesy of Household
Anthony Kohl (heart, pictured together with his sons) obtained the nationwide Peer Specialist of the Yr award from the Nationwide Council for Psychological Wellbeing in Could. (Courtesy of Household)
The household moved to Pennsylvania, however Kohl nonetheless commuted to New York Metropolis for work. On Sept. 11, 2001, he was in Manhattan for a plumbing job when the primary aircraft crashed into the North Tower.
After the catastrophe, like scores of different constructing trades employees, he volunteered, working the Pile at Floor Zero for 92 days, providing his companies as a grasp plumber, his household mentioned.
In an interview with the Nationwide Council for Psychological Wellbeing printed in April Kohl recalled his first brushes with substance abuse as a teen.
“My early life was marked by drug use — crack cocaine and alcohol from a young age,” he mentioned within the interview. “I had uncles who used heroin.”
With Alyssa and two younger sons to take care of, Kohl managed to maintain issues in examine. However when his sons received older, across the time they graduated highschool and left for school, and with Alyssa thriving on her personal, Kohl started to spiral. His grandparents, whom he had been extraordinarily near, died in fast succession.
By this level in his life, about 10 years after he had volunteered at Floor Zero, Anthony and his household had moved to Florida.
“Florida was bad. Florida was the worst,” Alyssa mentioned. “He was running the streets, getting high, getting drunk.”
Kohl was arrested in Florida for cocaine possession, data present. Alyssa remembers him calling her from jail, asking her to ship him cash.
“I was his younger sister, and I would never say no to him,” she mentioned. “That time was really hard.”
Though his life was falling aside, Kohl labored onerous to defend his youngsters from the worst of it. “There are things I won’t talk about, because I want the boys to know him only as the amazing father and best guy that he was,” Alyssa mentioned.
After getting out of jail in Florida, serving lower than a yr, Kohl determined he wanted a change and went to stick with Alyssa in New York. He attended an outpatient therapy program. In 2014, he began a peer-counseling internship, occurring to earn his certifications and throwing himself into his work as a peer counselor.
Courtesy of household
In Could, Anthony Kohl (heart, together with his sons) obtained the nationwide Peer Specialist of the Yr award from the Nationwide Council for Psychological Wellbeing at a conference in Philadelphia. (Courtesy of household)
“I found myself listening to people’s stories, offering guidance and pointing them toward resources that helped me,” Kohl mentioned within the Nationwide Council for Psychological Wellbeing interview. “That kind of support came naturally, and it felt good to play even a small part in someone else’s healing.”
Along with his day job as a peer specialist at VIP Neighborhood Providers, Kohl labored nights at Bronx HOPE, a program that focuses on overdose prevention and connecting individuals to companies after an arrest.
“The first precinct I was assigned to turned out to be the same one where I had been arrested years before,” Kohl mentioned within the pre-award interview. “I remember sitting there, waiting, and I just started laughing. The officer asked if I was OK, and I said, ‘Yeah — I’m good.’ Because, for the first time, I was leaving that building without handcuffs. I used to spend the night there, eating bologna sandwiches and waiting to see a judge. Now, I was there to help someone else. That full-circle moment hit me hard. It reminded me how far I’d come.”
Initially Revealed: October 5, 2025 at 5:04 PM EDT
