Who

As the city's chief medical examiner, it's up to Hirsch and his team to investigate New York's unexpected deaths—the murders, the suicides, and the cases where the seemingly healthy suddenly turn up dead.

Backstory

Hirsch attended the University of Illinois as an undergrad and med student before turning to the science of forensic examinations while working in Cleveland. In 1985, he was appointed chief medical examiner for Suffolk County. Three years later, then-Mayor Ed Koch tapped him for the ME position in New York City. But when Hirsch arrived on the job in September 1988, the department was in disarray: Koch had ousted his predecessor, Dr. Eliot Gross, after charges of negligence surfaced. (Gross wasn't the only ME fired by Koch; he also canned Michael Baden, who has since become a TV talking head.) Hirsch reorganized the department and made it more efficient, earning praise for initiatives such as allowing victims' family members to identify bodies by Polaroid instead of forcing them to view the bodies in person. Two decades later, Hirsch remains the city's forensic chief. He's also the chairman of the forensic medicine department at NYU Medical School.

On the job

Hirsch oversees a big operation—he and his team handle more than 25,000 suspicious demises a year and Hirsch has personally overseen the autopsies of over 100,000 corpses. His most public moment followed the aftermath of Sept. 11th, when Hirsch and his team were tasked with identifying the human remains at Ground Zero. Hirsch's work began minutes after the attacks when he was directed to set up a temporary morgue near the burning buildings. (In fact, some of his colleagues actually thought he'd died when the buildings collapsed; he only suffered scrapes and bruises after taking cover under a pedestrian bridge.) In the aftermath of the attack, Hirsch and his team faced the daunting task of trying to identify the 20,000 human remains recovered from the site. Family members of Sept. 11th victims have largely applauded his thorough but sensitive approach. But his job can stir up controversy, too, especially when the outcome of a forensic examination has political ramifications, such as cases in which a suspect dies in police custody. More recently, Hirsch ignited passion when he declined to add several police officers and firefighters who worked at Ground Zero to the list of 9/11 victims.

Keeping score

Hirsch's salary for 2007 was $170,229.

Personal

The suspenders-wearing, pipe-smoking Hirsch and his wife Marie-Claude met while both were stationed in the Air Force Corps in Germany. They keep two homes, an apartment in Kips Bay and a home in Brookhaven.