She moved to a Long Island suburb to raise her family, but Manhattan was the nexus of Maureen Olson’s life.

'We met in 1979 on a blind date in New York,' said her husband, John Eric Olson. At that time, 'She lived on 65th Street and First Avenue. But in the 1960’s and 1970’s she lived up in the high East 90’s.

'In the past year or so she had been looking around to move back to the city. I am sure we would have.'

The professional part of that goal was already in place.

Three years ago, with son Christopher and daughter Maeve in high school, Mrs. Olson took a job as a business librarian in the World Trade Center offices of Marsh Inc., a risk and insurance subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan, commuting to Manhattan with her husband from Rockville Centre, N.Y.

Mrs. Olson, who was a month and a day shy of 51 on Sept. 11, graduated from Manhattan Marymount College. She loved Broadway. She and her husband ran in the New York City Marathon.

'We met in college,' Marian Masone, a friend for roughly 30 years, said. 'Her sister and my sister were two years ahead of us. We even dropped out of college the same day, in the middle of our junior year. Eventually, we both went back.'