Husband was traveling for work when Surfside condo collapsed. His wife is among missing
In the early hours of June 24, Kevin Spiegel couldn’t sleep. It was 1 a.m. in California, where he was traveling for his job as a hospital administrator. He went to look at his phone and saw a news alert that a building had collapsed in Surfside, where he lived.
When he saw the location of the collapse, he realized it was his building. He Googled pictures and saw his home completely leveled. His wife, Judy Spiegel, was inside. She’s still missing.
Kevin got on the soonest flight home to Miami and met his three children there. Kevin was a first responder himself, first as a firefighter and then working on the board of directors of New York City 911.
Here are the names and stories of the missing and dead in Surfside condo collapse
“This is a very horrific. It looked like a bomb exploded, the building is more rubble than it is building,” Kevin said. “I’ve been deployed several times to different disaster locations but this is something else.”
Judy, 65, is a devoted mother, grandmother and philanthropist.
“She was an unbelievable person. Judy really went out of her way for people,” Kevin said. “And she’s gorgeous.”
Kevin and Judy both grew up on Long Island, New York. They met in 1978 in New York City, when Judy was working as a stock broker at Merrill Lynch. Kevin reminisced about their first date at his father’s house and a James Taylor concert they went to early in their relationship. They got married in 1982 and started a family together.
After their kids were born, Judy stopped working on the stock market and became deeply involved in volunteer work, specifically in fundraising and philanthropy for hospitals. One project she did that Kevin particularly admired was a hospital artwork program, where she revamped an entire hospital, filling its walls with art from local artists to replace the drab and generic posters that were on the wall.
“She completely transformed this huge hospital. It makes a big difference, it was unbelievable,” Kevin said.
When the family was living in Ohio some 20 years ago, they saw in the local Jewish newspaper that Holocaust survivor and memoirist Eva Schloss was in town for several speaking engagements. The couple offered to take her out to dinner and Eva and Judy became fast friends. Judy quickly became involved in Eva’s work and started to accompany her on speaking tours. The two speak every single day, according to Kevin.
The couple bought the apartment in the Champlain Towers five and a half years ago, first as a second home but they eventually moved there full time to be closer to their daughter, Rachel, and 4-year-old granddaughter, Scarlett, who live in Miami.
Kevin said Judy had a very close relationship with her grandmother when she was growing up and tried to foster the same kind of bond with her granddaughter Scarlett. Their daughter Rachel works in hospital management and during the pandemic, Judy took over most of the childcare and taught Scarlett how to read, write and count.
“It’s very hard to explain to her,” Kevin said, “The other day she’s asking where is grandma, and I tried to explain that there’s been an accident. Scarlett responded, oh, she does this all the time, but I know all her hiding spots, just take me there and I’ll find her.”
