Nicholas Scoppetta (November 6, 1932 – March 24, 2016) was the 31st New York City Fire Commissioner. He was appointed to that position by Mayor Michael Bloomberg on January 1, 2002 and was succeeded by Salvatore Cassano on January 1, 2010. He had previously served as the Commissioner of the city's Administration for Children's Services. Overview As Fire Commissioner, Scoppetta headed a department with an annual budget of more than $1 billion and with more than 16,000 fire, emergency medical service, and civilian members. His extensive experience in government and management spanned more than four decades. The Fire Department of New York encompasses fire services and emergency medical services. Scoppetta was also Commissioner of the Administration for Children’s Services, where he served from 1996 through 2001. His six-year tenure was three times the average tenure of Child Welfare Administrators in New York City. During his tenure, ACS engaged in a comprehensive reform of the city’s child welfare system which won praise from national child welfare experts and the media. In addition, Scoppetta was a Deputy Mayor and Commissioner of Investigation for the City of New York, an Associate Counsel to the Knapp Commission, an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, an Assistant District Attorney for New York County, and a Deputy Independent Counsel in the investigation and prosecution of a former Special Assistant to the President of the United States. After a two-year battle with cancer, Scoppetta died on March 24, 2016, at a hospice of Bellevue Hospital next door to the N.Y.C. Nicholas Scoppetta Children's Center, named in his honor in 2013. Childhood and education Scoppetta was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in 1932. He was the youngest son of Italian immigrants, who struggled to get by during the Great Depression. By the time he was four years old, his parents turned him and his two older brothers, Tony and Vincent, over to the city's care, initially in a shelter on 104th Street. At first, the three boys were separated, he said, but they were reunited a year or so later by a chance encounter at the dentist's office, where his brother Tony recognized him. Together, he and his brothers ended up in a group home in The Bronx called Woodycrest, now an AIDS hospice. They stayed until he was 12 and they were reunited with their parents. Scoppetta attended public