Bedford Resident Eric Vandercar Among Victims in Metro-North Tragedy

Eric Vandercar, 53, of Bedford has been identified as one of the victims killed when a Metro-North train collided with an SUV killing six people and injuring at least 15. He was a passenger on the train.

According to the Journal News, Vandercar was a father of two.

Vandercar served as the senior managing director at Mesirow Financial, an independent diversified financial services firm. Prior to working at Mesirow Financial, Vandercar worked at Morgan Stanley for 27 years.

According to his Linkedin page, he was an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania, Vandercar matriculated into the second ever class into the prestigious Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology, also called the M&T program. As part of the program, Vandercar achieved a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of Business and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering from Penn Engineering in 1983. He went on to earn his MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business in 1987.

He was a brother at the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity and a member of the Boy Scouts of America from 1972-79. He served as patrol leader after one year as a Scout at the rank of Tenderfoot and ultimately ascended to senior patrol leader.

He was also the head coach for the town of Bedford soccer league.

Vandercar listed animal welfare, children, education, environment, health, human rights and poverty alleviation as some of the causes he cares about on his Linkedin page. The Journal News reports that Vandercar was also an extreme skier, an advanced scuba diver and whitewater rafting guide.

A music enthusiast, Vandercar shared live concert recordings with online archives. The online music community JamBase expressed their condolences to his friends and family.

“While I only met Eric one time and subsequently had a few chats with him, he had a major impact on me and I can’t express enough what a good guy we’ve lost,” Scott Bernstein a member of the JamBase community wrote.

Eliot Byron, stage manager at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester wrote on Twitter, “We lost an old friend last night in the Metro North train tragedy. RIP Eric Vandercar.”

In a statement from Mesirow Financial, the company extended their sympathies to Vandercar’s wife and his family, Bloomberg reports.

Image via Mesirow Financial