The Fund intends to memorialize those with ties to Michigan whose lives were lost on September 11, 2001, and those who risked their lives to aid those affected by the tragedy.

There are a number of lists of the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Many are based on the compilation of the Associated Press, which generally uses the resident address at the time of the attacks as the place associated with the victim. Thus, a number of victims who were born in Michigan, grew up in Michigan, went to school in Michigan, or considered their home to be Michigan are identified with other states.

The Michigan Remembers 9-11 Fund is aware of many more people with ties to Michigan who were victims, or were affected that day. The Fund considers those who were born, grew up, went to school, or whose family was in Michigan to be “people of Michigan” worthy of remembrance, regardless of their resident address on the date of the attack. We have confirmed, based on multiple other sources, the Michigan roots of the victims listed below. It is our intention to include a remembrance of every confirmed Michigan victim. In 2020, the Michigan Remembers 9-11 Fund was able to confirm 23 additional individuals who were born in Michigan, grew up in Michigan, went to school in Michigan, or considered their home to be Michigan from information posted on the websites of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the National 9-11 Pentagon Memorial Fund, Inc., and the University of Michigan.  Profile information on victims of 9-11-01 may be found on Legacy.com Remember: September 11, 2001.  If you know of a victim who is not recognized here, please contact us.

Michigan Victims

Terence (Ted) E. Adderley, 22; originally from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Ted worked for Fred Alger Management at the World Trade Center. He graduated from the Detroit Country Day school in 1997, and then attended Vanderbilt University. During summer breaks Ted worked at Kelly Services in Troy, Michigan. His grandfather founded the firm, and his father served as chairman, president, and CEO.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 25, 2001

Some grandfathers teach grandsons to fish. Terence E. Adderley Jr.’s taught him to read The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Adderley, known as Ted, was born with business in his blood and relished it. His grandfather, William Russell Kelly, founded Kelly Services, a temp agency based in Michigan.

By the time Mr. Adderley was 12, he was picking his own stocks. He went to his grandfather’s university — Vanderbilt — and joined his grandfather’s fraternity, Sigma Chi. In the summers, he worked at Kelly and practiced dry wit. He teased co-workers about trivial mistakes by signing letters to them in a script similar to the company’s chief executive — his father, Terence E. Adderley.

At 22, he found Wall Street an easy fit. He shared a preference for French cuffs and collars with his new boss, the veteran Wall Street money manager David Alger.

Mr. Adderley planned ahead and family always figured prominently. His sister Elizabeth’s 17th birthday fell in October. From her brother, she received a watch with a blue band (her favorite color) and gloves. Mr. Adderley had bought them for her by August, along with a pink scarf. It was not pashmina.

“He didn’t care for pashmina,” said Mr. Adderley’s mother, Mary Beth. “If he was going to buy something for his sister, it was going to be cashmere.”

David D. Alger, 57; grew up in Grosse Pointe Michigan. Mr. Alger was the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Fred Alger Management, and was among the 35 employees lost in the firm’s 93rd-floor office in the north tower. He graduated from Harvard where he majored in history, and earned an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan. He also earned the University of Michigan Alumni Achievement Award which “recognizes alumni of the Business School whose attainments in their professional fields have brought distinction to themselves, credit to the School and benefit to their fellow citizens.” After his death the school renamed the award to the “David D. Alger Alumni Achievement Award.” David Alger was known for training analysts in the rigorous research methods he practiced. His elaborate computer-modeling techniques were accompanied by a reliance on old-fashioned legwork. He once dispatched a group of analysts disguised as graduate students to observe the holiday traffic at Toys ”R” Us stores. Mr. Alger is survived by his wife and two daughters, as well as his brother and sister.

Editorial Obituary published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on September 25, 2001, DAVID ALGER, MANAGER OF MUTUAL FUNDS, IS DEAD AT 57, By DOUGLAS MARTIN

David Alger, whose approach to investing in stocks propelled the mutual funds he managed to the top of the 90’s bull market, died in the collapse of the World Trade Center, his wife, Josephine, said yesterday. He was 57 and had homes in Manhattan and Tuxedo Park, N.Y.

According to Gregory Duch, the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Fred Alger Management Inc., none of the 35 employees in the firm’s 93rd-floor office in the north tower at the time of the disaster appear to have escaped.

Mr. Alger, a frequent guest on television shows about Wall Street investments, was known as one of the more prominent opponents of so- called value investing, most famously practiced by Warren E. Buffett. He rejected Mr. Buffett’s emphasis on underlying corporate values, relying instead on such factors as his own intricate analyses of future earnings potential. He became a leading proponent of technology stocks.

“He saw things that others didn’t,” said Don Phillips, managing director of Morningstar Inc., a Chicago firm which tracks the mutual fund industry. “He produced spectacular results.”

When David Alger took over the firm’s operations from his brother, Frederick, in 1995, it managed $3 billion in assets and 82 employees. At his death, it managed $15 billion and had 220 employees, Mr. Duch said.

Mr. Duch said that Frederick, who had remained as chairman, would return to serve as president and chief investment officer. Frederick’s son-in-law, Dan Chung, who previously worked at the firm, will be chief investment officer. The company has continued to do business at its offices in Jersey City and Morristown, N.J.

David Dewey Alger was born on Dec. 15, 1943, in California, and grew up in Grosse Pointe, Mich. He graduated from Harvard where he majored in history, and earned an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.

In 1968, he began his career as a securities analyst, and in 1972 joined his brother’s firm. He ultimately owned 20 percent of the firm, with his brother retaining ownership of the remainder. Frederick moved to Geneva in 1995, leaving David in day-to- day control of the business.

David Alger became known for training analysts in the rigorous research methods he practiced. His elaborate computer-modeling techniques were accompanied by a reliance on old-fashioned legwork. He once dispatched a group of analysts disguised as graduate students to observe the holiday traffic at Toys “R” Us stores.

In addition to his wife and brother, Mr. Alger is survived by a sister, Suzette Howard of Aiken, S.C.; and daughters Cristina de Marigny Alger of Cambridge, Mass.; and Roxanna Geffen of Manhattan.

Todd M. Beamer, 32; was born in Flint, Michigan and spent much of his youth in Glen Ellyn, IL.  He graduated in 1991 from Wheaton College. Todd was an account manager for Oracle Corp., and was a passenger on Flight 93.  Mr. Beamer is survived by his wife and three children.  

CHICAGO TRIBUNE – published September 17, 2001, One hero’s final message relays love — and a prayer, By BY DOUGLAS HOLT

During the last moments aboard the hijacked Boeing 757 careering over Pennsylvania, Wheaton College graduate Todd Beamer calmly reported the situation to a telephone operator.

The pilot and co-pilot were apparently injured or dead. Hijackers were flying the plane. And one hijacker guarded the passengers while wearing what he said was a bomb tied around his waist with a red belt.

“I know we’re not going to make it out of here,” Beamer told Lisa Jefferson, a GTE-Airfone supervisor, before he and 44 others died when the plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania Tuesday, the only one of four hijacked aircraft that did not strike a terrorist target.

Before reciting the Lord’s Prayer, Beamer, 32, asked the operator to contact his wife to tell her that he loved her. Then he put the phone down and apparently joined a passenger revolt to retake control of the plane.

“Are you guys ready?” the operator heard before the connection was lost. “Let’s roll!”

U.S. officials believe that United Flight 93 from Newark, N.J., originally bound for San Francisco, was streaking toward the U.S. Capitol or some other target in Washington when it came down.

“What they did was to foil, I think, the attack on Washington,” Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Without question, the attack would’ve been much worse if it hadn’t been for the courageous acts of those individuals on United 93.”

Oak Brook-based GTE-Airfone faxed a summary of the 15-minute conversation to Beamer’s wife, Lisa, of Cranbury, N.J., Friday, an account she supplemented in a call from the operator.

Beamer said she recognized “Let’s roll” as the words of her husband, who was raised in Wheaton. “He uses that with our little boys all the time,” she said Sunday. “When I heard that part of the conversation, I knew that was Todd.”

Calm encouragement

She described the operator as soft-spoken and professional, seemingly keeping her emotions in check as she recounted hearing her husband’s even-tempered voice over the sound of screams in the background.

“I told her she must have been such a pillar of strength for him,” Beamer said. “I thanked her for that.”

According to previous accounts, passenger Jeremy Glick told his wife he believed they could overpower the hijackers. “We can take them,” he said. Thomas Burnett told his wife: “I know we’re all going to die. There’s three of us who are going to do something about it.”

In her account, Jefferson wrote that Beamer told her the hijackers divided passengers into two groups: 10 in front and 27 in back, which would account for all but one passenger. (Her memo had put the larger number of passengers in front; Lisa Beamer said Jefferson corrected that in their conversation.)

“Todd told me that there were three people … on the flight hijacking the plane, two with knives and one with a bomb strapped around his waist with a red belt,” Jefferson wrote. “I asked him if there were any children on the plane. Todd responded, not that he could see.”

He said two people were hurt — the pilot and co-pilot, according to Lisa Beamer. He was “not sure if they were dead or alive,” Jefferson wrote.

“Some of the passengers on the flight had decided to `jump on’ the hijacker with the bomb and try to get him down,” the memo says. “The last thing Todd said to me was to call his wife for him and to pray for him. At this point Todd started reciting the Lord’s Prayer.”

Enduring legacy

Someday, Lisa Beamer said, she will tell the story to sons David, 3, and Andrew, 1. She is expecting a third child in January.

“This doesn’t change the future of my family, but it sure gives credence to the person I know Todd was,” Lisa Beamer said. “It gives us something we can hand down to our little boys.

“Certainly when the chips were down, his character, his faith, his love for his family and his love for his fellow man showed through. There’re not too many bright stories coming out of this. Hopefully the story that comes out of Flight 93 will give people hope.”

On Monday, the Beamer family will join relatives at a memorial service near the crash site. Lisa Beamer plans to leave a Chicago Bulls hat, a pack of M&Ms, an Oracle Inc. pen for the job he loved and two other items to represent his spiritual and family life.

David Beamer, 59, called his son a “freedom fighter.” “Obviously there was a struggle, but I can tell you who lost,” he said. “That plane was headed for a target, and it wasn’t a field with nobody there in Pennsylvania.”

Eric Lee Bennett, 29; originally from Flint, Michigan. Eric was a vice president at Alliance Consulting Group, working from his office on the 102nd floor of the World Trade Center’s north tower. He attended Kearsley High School in Flint, and Ferris State University, where he was a center on the football team.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 19, 2001

When Eric Bennett disappeared, his missing poster offered two distinguishing traits: a tattoo of a bulldog head on his right shoulder and deep stretch marks under his arms. Both pieces of information attested to Mr. Bennett’s love of football, which he played with a championship team at Kearsley High School in Flint, Michigan, and also at Michigan’s Ferris State University.

The bulldog was the mascot at Ferris State; on Mr. Bennett’s tattoo, the dog tag read “58,” his number. The stretch marks appeared when he lost his football bulk and trimmed down to 180 pounds from 255.

“Eric was always very determined, very motivated,” said his mother, Betty Bennett, who lives in Flint with her husband, Terry. “He was small for a center, and he had to prove himself.”

Mr. Bennett worked as a vice president at Alliance Consulting Group on the 102nd floor of the north tower. He made many new friends in New York, even while staying in touch with high school friends and teammates. At his memorial in Michigan, a couple of them also sported bulldog tattoos.

Dr. Yeneneh Betru, 35; a graduate of the Medical School at the University of Michigan, was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  Dr. Betru worked as the Director of Medical Affairs for IPC-the Hospitalist Company in Burbank, California. He specialized in improving hospital care and was in the process of developing an improved kidney dialysis machine. He was on Flight 77.  

PENTAGON MEMORIAL FUND, INC.: 

Before the terrorist attacks of September 11th, before his life tragically ended when his plane crashed into the Pentagon, Dr. Yeneneh Betru, born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, immigrated to the United States in 1982 with the dream of becoming a physician. His goal was a result of a promise he made to his grandmother to cure her of all that ailed an old woman. 

He attended high school at the Abbey School in Colorado, College at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, Medical School at the University of Michigan, and later completed his residency at Los Angeles County–USC Medical Center. During the last three years, he worked as the Director of Medical Affairs for IPC–The Hospitalist Company in Burbank, California. One of the pioneers in a new practice of medicine referred to as Hospitalist Care, he traveled around the country to train hundreds of physicians. Yeneneh was a young man full of drive and ambition and served as a great example to his whole family. He was a friend, a role model, and a mentor to his younger siblings, who often say, “all our accomplishments are a result of his guidance, I don’t know what we are going to do without him.” 

In June 1998, when his grandmother became ill, Dr. Betru flew to Ethiopia to aid her doctors. Due to lack of equipment and supplies she, unfortunately, passed away during his watch. “With poor facilities and absent equipment, the sick have little chance of survival,” he often said. With a renewed sense of responsibility, Dr. Betru vowed to help enhance the condition of medical facilities in Ethiopia, beginning the process of creating a kidney dialysis clinic in Addis Ababa. In present day Ethiopia, given the lack of kidney dialysis machines, persons with kidney failure have virtually no chance of survival. Investing his own time and money, Dr. Betru acquired a half dozen dialysis machines, solutions and supplies. It was while Dr. Betru was working with the Ethiopian government to designate the proper location for the clinic that the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001 ended his dream on American Airlines Flight 77. It is a chilling irony that a man dedicated to enhancing human life was taken away by one of history’s worst acts of disregard for human life. 

Dr. Betru was only 35 and just beginning his life after years of education and planning for the future. Who knew his future would be so short? 

He is survived by his father, Mr. Betru Wolde Tensay; his mother, Mrs. Sara Tesheberu; his brother, Sirak Betru; his sister, Ruth Betru; his brother, Aron Betru; and countless other family and friends.

Kirsten Lail Christophe, 39; a Michigan State University graduate, and an attorney who received her law degree from DePaul University.  Kirsten was a Vice President of Risk Services at Aon Corporation and her office was located on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center.  She is survived by her husband and daughter.

THE NEW JERSEY STAR-LEDGER – published September 23, 2001, KIRSTEN L. CHRISTOPHE, 39, LEGAL EXPERT, By Rebecca Goldsmith 

Kirsten L. Thompson Christophe said goodbye to her husband, Charles, at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 11 in the PATH station below the World Trade Center. From there, she went up the South Tower to her office at Aon Corp., and he went to his office, about a block away.

At 9:05 a.m., Mrs. Christophe left a message for her husband, who had stepped out for an appointment. She wanted to alert him that the North Tower had been hit by a plane.

“I’m safe,” the message said. “Don’t worry.” He did not hear from her again.

An accomplished attorney, dedicated volunteer and new mother, Mrs. Christophe, 39, of Maplewood was vice president of risk services for Aon Corp.

Born in Racine, Wis., Mrs. Christophe grew up in Chicago. She graduated from Michigan State University in 1983 and received her law degree from DePaul University in Chicago in 1986.

She met her husband in 1994 in a bar review course they took when studying for the New York State bar exam. They were married the following year. Last year, they had a daughter, Gretchen Daugmar Christophe.

“She was just like my angel,” Mr. Christophe said of his wife. “She was an excellent mother. She was a brilliant spouse. Perfect.”

Mr. Christophe marveled at how his wife was able to excel at everything she did. “She was extremely, extremely organized,” her husband said. “She was finding time for everything. She was able to manage everything.”

She was active in the American Bar Association’s tort and insurance practice section for 15 years. She was a nationally recognized expert in helping law firms comply with ethical and professional rules to prevent legal malpractice suits, and she published papers and books on the subject, he said.

She was also an active member of the New York Junior League for 10 years, he said.”She was really, really socially open and tried to help everybody to do volunteer work,” he said. 

Besides Mrs. Christophe’s husband and daughter, surviving are her parents, Bert and Bettye Lail Thompson of Peoria, Ill., and a sister and brother-in-law, Eric and Kaia Thompson of Chicago.

Brian Paul Dale, 43; a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, was a senior consultant with Price Waterhouse.  Dale oversaw the legal and accounting activities at Blue Capital Management, the investment firm he co-founded. His job often required him to travel for business purposes. He was on American Flight 11.  

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE Published on September 10, 2011, Local victims of 9/11 have not been forgotten, BY CAROL WATERLOO FRAZIER

Brian Paul Dale was among 81 passengers and 11 crew members on American Airlines Flight 11. He was on his way from Boston to Los Angeles when the plane was crashed into the World Trade Center. He had missed an earlier flight to the West Coast after a business trip; he rescheduled and had a seat aboard the doomed plane.

Born Oct. 23, 1957, Dale was the son of Mary Steimer Dale and the late Earl Dale and grew up in North Huntingdon Township. He was a student at Immaculate Conception School in Irwin and a 1976 graduate of Norwin High School where he was his valedictorian. He graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1980, where he earned the nickname “Hulk” playing tight end for the football team. In 1981 he received an MBA from Dartmouth’s Amos Tucki School of Business. Ten years later he received his juris doctor degree from the University of Michigan.

Prior to co-founding Blue Capital Management LLC, a New York City-based investment firm, he worked for the Kirkpatrick and Lockhart law firm in Pittsburgh and was a former certified public accountant with Price Waterhouse in Pittsburgh, Washington and New York.

Dale and his family lived in Warren, N.J., 10 years ago, but his wife Louanne Baily and their children returned to her hometown of Mt. Lebanon. They were married in November 1996 and have three children Jacob Earl, who was 3 at the time, and 1-year-old twins Russell and Rachel.

His wife and children aren’t the only ones impacted by his death. So were his siblings Kevin Dale, who at the time was a commander in the U.S. Coast Guard in Norfolk, Va., and Lauren Dale Rice as well as his other relatives. The family had a chance to be together that year when Dale was home in July for a 25th class reunion, and in August spent time vacationing with his family for two weeks in the Adirondacks.

Frank J. Doyle, 39; grew up in New Boston, Michigan. Frank worked in the south tower at the World Trade Center, and was head of equity trading for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. Mr. Doyle was able to call his wife, Kimmy Chedel, twice during the attacks, and informed her that he needed to stay in the tower to help others. Mr. Doyle is survived by his wife, his son Garrett, and his daughter Zoe. He and his family lived in Englewood, N.J.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 30, 2001

When Frank Doyle came home from his job on Wall Street, he would play with his two young children and get them to bed. Only then did Mr. Doyle pull on his running shoes, go outside and run hills in his Englewood, N.J., neighborhood to train for triathlons.

“He was a tremendous athlete,” said Kimmy Chedel, his wife of four years. The couple ran their first triathlon together on Aug. 5.

Ms. Chedel said she met Mr. Doyle on an evening cruise of New York Harbor for college alumni of his school, Bowdoin College in Maine, and her school, Middlebury College in Vermont. His name tag fell off and stuck to her shoe. “I said, “Who is Frank Doyle?’ ” she said. “He came over when he heard his name. It was love at first sight.”

Mr. Doyle, 39, who was head of equity trading at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, called his wife after terrorists struck the World Trade Center’s north tower. “I have to stay,” he said. After the south tower, which contained Mr. Doyle’s office, was struck, he called her again, saying that he and many others were trapped. “He very calmly said, ‘We need your help,’ ” Ms. Chedel said. “Up to the last minute of his life, he was a team player.”

Barbara Edwards, 58; grew up in Wyoming, Michigan. Mrs. Edwards was a French and German teacher at Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. She was born in Germany, and moved to Michigan at age 10. She graduated from Kelloggsville High School in 1961 and from Western Michigan University in 1965. She was traveling on Flight 77 when it was crashed into the Pentagon.

PENTAGON MEMORIAL FUND, INC.: 

Barbara Edwards was the purveyor of laughter and everything positive in her family and schools where she taught.

Edwards, 58, was killed along with two friends and other passengers as they flew from Washington, DC to Los Angeles on American Airlines Flight 77. She was returning home to Las Vegas, Nevada, after attending a friend’s wedding in Connecticut and visiting others in Washington. 

The native German leaves behind three sons, one of whom, Mike Edwards, lives in San Diego. 

“My mom never let little things get us down,” said another son, Captain Scott Edwards, a 28-year-old Marine pilot living in Beaufort, South Carolina, “Even if something went wrong, it was never the focus.”

Edwards’ younger sister, Jane Gollan, 57, of Seattle, remembered Edwards as her protector when they were children, and her soul mate when they were grown.

“We had some pretty good fights, but if anybody wanted to pick on me, that wasn’t allowed,” Gollan said. “I could go maybe two months without calling her. And when I did, it was like I just talked to her yesterday.”

At Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas, where Edwards taught French and German for the past four years, principal Teri Smith said Edwards built her German language course from one class to six. Edwards was adviser to Palo Verde’s International Club, for which she often bought treats. She was born in Frankfurt and came to the United States when she was a child with her stepfather, Jack Vander Baan, 74, and her mother, Lissy, both of Hopkins, Michigan. 

She grew up in Michigan, but lived in various parts of the country. Edwards was a cheerleader in high school and a runner-up in a homecoming queen contest.

In addition to her parents and sons, Mike and Scott, Edwards is survived by a third son, Douglas, of New Jersey; a daughter-in-law, Christina; and a grandson, Scott, Jr. 

Paul Friedman 45; a University of Michigan graduate, MSE.  Paul worked as a senior management consultant, Emergence Consulting. On the day before he boarded Flight 11 from Boston, Friedman spent the day with his newly adopted infant son.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 2, 2001

Paul Friedman, a shy, kind man with a surging mind, was always a problem-solver. Of the five Friedman siblings, he was the listener, the untangler of life’s knots. He would pose a zillion questions, leading his siblings toward their own solutions. Professionally, he played a similar role. With degrees in psychology, engineering and business, he became a management consultant for Emergence Consulting in Lincoln, Mass.

You could not not like him, the man who at snoozy business meetings kept his end of the table in convulsive snickers. The friend who shlepped rugelach cross-country for a pal, the human jungle gym for nieces and nephews, the husband who showered his wife, Audrey Ades, with gifts. He collected snow globes (only the tackiest!), saved his report cards (including those from Hebrew school), and gazed at the natural world, entranced, camera in hand.

At 45, he tackled his most delightful problem. In May, he and Audrey adopted a Korean infant, Richard Harry Hyun-Soo Friedman (nom de nursery: Rocky).

Mr. Friedman delivered rib-tickling disquisitions on the challenge of the dirty diaper. He spent Sept. 10 with Rocky. “Did you take him to a playground?” a sister asked. “No,” replied the cerebral new papa. “I took him to Starbucks.”

The next morning, Mr. Friedman boarded American Airlines Flight 11.

James Gartenberg 34; member of Julien J. Studley, Inc., World Trade Center. He served as president of the University of Michigan Alumni Club of New York for 12 years prior to serving on the National Advisory Committee for the University Library and Task Force. He is survived by his wife, who is also a University of Michigan graduate, and two daughters, his youngest born after his death.   

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 23, 2001

“When I first met him, he was running the University of Michigan Alumni Club meeting. He was president of the New York City chapter. I was impressed with his leadership skills, how well he was organized, his intelligence, his presence, his ability to negotiate in difficult situations when there was conflict. I said to myself, ‘I want to marry him.’ “

That was in 1989. James M. Gartenberg, a man who would be hugely thrilled to know that Coach Lloyd Carr and the entire Michigan football squad signed a condolence card to his family, took a long time to come to the same conclusion about Jill Freeberg that she had about him.

But figure it out he surely did. Married six years ago, happily ensconced on the Upper East Side, father of Nicole, 2, with another child on the way, Mr. Gartenberg, 35, was moving out of his office at 1 World Trade Center on Sept. 11. His employer, Julien J. Studley Inc., the commercial real estate firm, was shifting him to Midtown.

Mr. Gartenberg spent some of his last minutes on ABC-TV, calmly describing the situation on the 86th floor.

He was making plans to take his family to next month’s Michigan-Wisconsin game. He had taught Nicole “his heart and soul” to yell “Go Blue!” when Michigan was on television. He secretly fantasized about wearing navy pants embossed with little maize M’s when he was suitably old.

Steven Goldstein, 35; graduated from the University of Michigan, and worked as a computer analyst for Cantor Fitzgerald at the World Trade Center. He had begun his job two weeks before the attacks. Prior to taking the job, he worked in the basement of his family’s home developing his Internet company, which traded weather derivatives online and was bought by Cantor Fitzgerald.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 15, 2001

The portrait that emerged of Steven Goldstein at his memorial service two weeks ago was that of the kind of guy who would give “horsy rides” to any neighborhood kid who showed up on his lawn, the kind of man who would even listen to long- winded telemarketers’ speeches as not to be rude.

He had season tickets to the Knicks, but would rarely go to the games. “He’d say, ‘I just want to be with you guys,”‘ said his wife, Jill. The couple had a baby boy and a daughter, 3. “People would think we were crazy because we never had a baby sitter. He would say, ‘Why do we need to go out?”‘

Mr. Goldstein, 35, had been working at Cantor Fitzgerald for only two weeks. Prior to that, he spent his working days in his basement office at home in Princeton, where he had developed an Internet company that Cantor recently purchased.

Elaine Myra Greenberg, 56; her sister, Karen Rappleye, lives in Birmingham, Michigan. Elaine was a financial services consultant for Compaq, and was attending a conference on the 106th floor of tower one, World Trade Center, on the morning of September 11, 2001. Elaine lived in New York City.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on January 29, 2002

Elaine Myra Greenberg loved sending people postcards.

“She would call you up to tell you she had sent you one,” said her sister, Karen Rappleye. “Then she would call you up when you got it. She wanted to see if you were enjoying it.”

The cards were often funny, her sister said. “She sent my husband a birthday card that said, ‘Don’t worry about getting older, I’ll come over and dust you.'”

Ms. Greenberg, 56, was known as the “cool aunt” in her family. And why not? How many aunts teach their nieces and nephews to drink and gamble? Her sister did not mind. “She was doing it so she could keep an eye on them,” she said.

While she enjoyed some vices, Ms. Greenberg also loved New York City’s cultural offerings. She had season tickets to the Metropolitan Opera, often went to the theater and spent many hours at her favorite museum, the American Museum of Natural History.

A financial services consultant for Compaq, she was attending a technology conference on the 106th floor of 1 World Trade Center on Sept. 11 when it was attacked.

Mrs. Rappleye remembers one card in particular that her sister sent. One day, Ms. Greenberg played hooky from work and went to Atlantic City with her roommate, Susan Price. She sent her sister a card. It read: “Having a wonderful day. Ferris Bueller.”

Bradley (Brad) Hoorn, 22; originally from Richland, Michigan. Brad, who grew up in Gull Lake, Michigan and attended Yale University, was a research associate with Fred Alger Management. He was working on the 93rd floor of Tower 1 at the time of the attacks. He graduated from Gull Lake High School in 1997.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 25, 2001

Bradley Van Hoorn showed up for his sophomore year at Yale with a mounted caribou head, a gift from his father. The two, along with Mr. Hoorn’s mother and sister, crammed the head into a van with Mr. Hoorn’s luggage and drove from Richland, a small town near Kalamazoo, Mich., to New Haven.

Mr. Hoorn had warned his roommates.

“These city slicker kids that lived with him thanked us for the moose we brought,” his mother, Kathy, recalled. “I don’t think they knew the difference between a moose, an elk and a caribou, but they were wonderful kids.”

After graduation, Mr. Hoorn, 22, worked for an investment firm on the 93rd floor of the World Trade Center’s north tower. He saw the city as an adventure, but lamented the lack of tennis courts.

He hoped to eventually head back west in his red Porsche (another gift from his father), and maybe even someday become a teacher, like his mother.

She remembers his sheepish grins when she caught her son reading novels while he was supposed to be studying. In one sitting, Mr. Hoorn could finish a Grisham or Clancy, and he devoured the Harry Potters.

“There was a lot of kid in him,” she said.

Suzanne Kondratenko, 27; originally from Romeo, Michigan, Senior Consultant, Keane Consulting Group. Confirmed dead, World Trade Center, at/in building. Ms. Kondratenko grew up in Romeo, Michigan and attended Sacred Heart high school. She was attending a meeting with Aon Insurance executives on the 92nd floor of the north tower at the time of the attacks.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on March 8, 2003

Suzanne Kondratenko, 27, of Chicago, was the third of eight daughters born over the course of 23 years. She had a sweet spot for her youngest sister, Paige, now 9, who has Down syndrome.

“Paige was, I think, one of Suzanne’s greatest joys,” said one of Ms. Kondratenko’s older sisters, Aimée.

“She learned how to walk at the age of 8, right before Suzanne was killed,” Aimée Kondratenko said. “That was just one of Suzanne’s most exciting moments. When she learned from our parents that Paige had done certain things, she would dash around the office and tell her girlfriends.”

Paige and Suzanne had deep similarities, including a silly sense of humor and a love of books. Family members enjoyed the loving and happy energy they shared, Aimée Kondratenko said.

Suzanne Kondratenko was a senior consultant with Keane Consulting Group, flying to New York weekly to work with Aon Corporation at the World Trade Center. Since Sept. 11, Paige has helped the family cope with their loss, Aimée said.

“To this day,” she said, “she’ll take your face in her hands and try to make you smile.”

Darya Lin, 32; originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Darya was born in Ann Arbor, and lived there until age 3, when she moved to her mother’s native country of Iran. She returned to Ann Arbor with her family at age 11, and earned bachelors and masters degrees in industrial and engineering operations from the University of Michigan. Darya was working as a senior manager for the Keane Consulting Group out of Chicago, and attending a meeting on the 92nd floor of the World Trade Center’s tower two. She was reported to have made it down to the 78th floor after the attacks, and chose to stay there to care for others.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on February 3, 2002

Darya Lin was not easy to rattle. Growing up in Iran in the early 1980’s near a border under heavy bombardment by Iraq, she nevertheless had a “very, very healthy childhood,” said her mother, Nahid Mashayekhi Lin. “She never had any fear or any bad memories.”

So it makes sense to her friends and family that on Sept. 11 Ms. Lin, a 32-year-old senior manager with Keane Consulting Group who was advising clients that day at AON, stayed on the 78th floor to help a pregnant client while others in her group ran downstairs to safety.

But Ms. Lin was also aware of her mortality. Over the summer, when she returned a pair of running shoes she had borrowed from her mother, one of them had a note with her name and personal information inside. “She said, `Yeah, mommy, because when people die, the first place they look is in their shoes.'”

Ms. Lin, whose father is Burmese, moved with her parents to Ann Arbor, Mich., when she was 11; as an adult she traveled in Europe and the United States, eventually settling in Chicago. She never returned to Iran, but kept up with the language and was considering a return visit with her mother. 

“She had very good handwriting in Persian and she used to write me in Persian,” her mother said. “In her letters, she would thank us for everything we’d done.”

Peter Edward Mardikian, 29, born in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  Peter was attending a Risk Waters Group conference at Windows on the World.  He worked for Imagine Software, Inc.  He is survived by his wife, Corinne; they had only been married six weeks.  

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 19, 2001

Risk Waters Group conference attendee from Imagine Software, Inc.

Peter E. Mardikian had both good and bad timing: good, because he met his future wife, Corinne, at Ohio State University, where they lived in the same dorm; and bad, because, try as he might, after graduation, there never seemed to be a good time for her to move to New York to be with him.

Mr. Mardikian, who worked at Imagine Software, traveled a lot in his job after college. Corinne Mardikian graduated after him and did not want to be in New York unless they could be together.

“It was very tough to live apart,” said Mrs. Mardikian. “The time was never right to actually be together.”

But Mr. Mardikian, 29, had grown up in Princeton, N.J., dreaming of living in Manhattan and working on Wall Street. Though he never made it to Wall Street, less than two years ago, the timing was finally right, and his future wife moved in with him.

“His closure was her coming to Manhattan,” said his friend and former roommate, Eric Boucher. “He wouldn’t have been complete without getting married to Cori.”

On Sept. 11, Mr. Mardikian was attending a conference at Windows on the World. He had been married for six weeks.

Margaret Elaine Mattic, 51; originally from Detroit, Michigan. Margaret was a Customer Service Account Representative for General Telecom in the north tower of the World Trade Center. According to the Detroit News account of September 5, 2006, Ms. Mattic went to New York to pursue a career as an actress and playwright. She is survived by her sister Jean Neal of Detroit. Ms. Mattic lived in New York, She graduated from Cass Technical High school in Detroit, and graduated from Wayne State University in 1973.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 22, 2001

Margaret Mattic was the only one of the five Mattic girls of Detroit to have dimples. Right and left, the dimples set off the shy smile and the lilting, gentle voice that everyone remarked on. As a young girl, in elementary school productions, she played Snow White as well as Gretel in “Hansel and Gretel.”

The love of performing stuck with Ms. Mattic, a surprise since she seemed so quiet. She studied theater at Wayne State University. After college, more productions followed, mostly in community theater, often in plays like “Sty of the Blind Pig,” the 1971 work by Phillip Hayes Dean about a black family in Chicago.

Eventually, Ms. Mattic wound up in Manhattan to pursue acting. She usually took temporary jobs, typically as a receptionist, so she could go to auditions.

Recently, she talked to friends about producing and starring in a one-woman play she had written, called “The Vision,” about how the gift of prophecy changed several generations of a family. At 51, she also wanted the comfort of a permanent job, so she became a customer service representative for General Telecom in the World Trade Center. “Every employer she ever worked for always loved her voice,” recalled her sister, Jean Neal, 56. “It was so soothing and gentle and soft.”

Kathleen Nicosia, 54; mother Phyllis Hawk is from Portage, Michigan and sister Kimberley Meyer is from Tecumseh, Michigan. Kathy was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11 when it flew into the World Trade Center.

Editorial Obituary published in THE BOSTON GLOBE on 9/18/2001

Kathy Nicosia of Winthrop, a flight attendant for American Airlines, was killed Sept. 11 in New York on American Airlines Flight 11. She was 54. Mrs. Nicosia was a native of Indiana. She received her bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University in 1969, where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega. For 32 years, Mrs. Nicosia was a resident of Winthrop and a flight attendant for American Airlines. She enjoyed reading and gardening. She leaves her husband, George; her daughter, Marianne of Winthrop; her mother, Phyllis Hawk of Portage, Mich.; two brothers, James Hawk of Washington D.C., and Larry Hawk of New York City; and a sister, Kimberly Meyer of Tecumseh, Mich. 

Albert Ogletree, 49; was born in Michigan and lived in New York City.  He was working in the cafeteria at Cantor Fitzgerald in the North Tower of the World Trade Center when the attack occurred. He worked for Forte Food Service. 

Todd Ouida, 25; a graduate of the University of Michigan, worked as a trader for Cantor Fitzgerald at the World Trade Center. On his application to U-M, he wrote, “I discovered no matter how big the person is on the outside (for I am only 5’5″ tall) that the size of the heart is always going to be more important.”

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 11, 2001

Whether he was mischievously finagling another stroke at golf or beaming over his infant niece, Todd Ouida’s smile touched people. “A great smile that could light up a room,” said his mother, Andrea.

It was not a smile he came by easily.

He was not big enough, his older brother, Jordan Ouida joked, to be a water boy. But he persisted and became a starting defensive back on the River Dell High School Football Team in New Jersey. He overcame a panic disorder that began in the fourth grade and made him terrified to go to school for several years. But he received a degree from the University of Michigan.

Todd Ouida, 25, became a foreign currency option trader for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor of the north tower. He was hired on his own merits after a summer internship arranged by Jordan Ouida, a vice-president in the London office. He and his father, Herbert, executive vice-president of the World Trade Centers Association on the 78th floor, he survived the attack, commuted together from River Edge, N.J.

“Todd was always amazing us; whatever the obstacle, he was able to overcome it,” Jordan Ouida said. “There was a lot of family support, but it was also the inner strength that he had in himself.”

Manish Patel, 29, a University of Michigan graduate, worked for Euro Brokers Inc. at the World Trade Center. An economics major born in India.

Robert R. Ploger III, 59, attended Michigan State University. Robert and his new wife, Zandra, were aboard flight 77, heading to Hawaii for a honeymoon when the plane was crashed into the Pentagon. Robert was a computer specialist, and lived in Annandale, Virginia. His parents, Robert Sr. and Marguerite, were originally from Owosso.

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Robert Riis Ploger III was born on December 19, 1941, in Ft. Lewis, Washington, to Major General Robert Riis Ploger, USA (ret.) and Marguerite Ploger. He died on September 11, 2001, aboard American Airline’s Flight 77, departing for his honeymoon with Zandra Cooper Ploger. 

As the son of a military officer, Mr. Ploger attended 11 schools, graduating from Paris American High School in 1959. He attended Michigan State University and graduated from the University of Denver in 1965. He served in the U.S. Army from 1960-1962. 

Bob’s long career in information technology began with what he jokingly referred to as being “a midwife at the birth of the Internet,” helping develop one of the ARPANET’s first nodes at the University of California Santa Barbara. Later, both as a development engineer at a start-up company and as the creator of another company, he successfully developed IBM attachments for compatible networks for the Series I/370 and Series 1/X.25. Mr. Ploger retired from IBM in 1996 with two patents. At the time of his death, he was the Director of Enterprise Engineering for the U.S. Customs and Modernization Program at Lockheed Martin. 

He is survived by two children, Wendy Ploger of Brooklyn, NY and Robert Riis Ploger IV of Tucson, AZ; three brothers, Wayne Ploger of Montross, VA, Daniel Ploger of Sarasota, FL, Gregory Ploger of Bologna, Italy; two sisters, Marianne Ploger Hill of Memphis, TN, Marguerite Ploger of Spokane WA; and his first wife, Sheila Wagner Ploger of Potomac, MD. His mother Marguerite Ploger preceded him in death in 1982 and his father Maj. Gen. Robert R. Ploger, USA, died in 2002. 

He was a skilled and consummate woodworker; enjoyed playing tennis with his daughter; grilling and stir-frying; and fixing just about anything. His friends and family will all miss Bob’s unique combination of intellectual and physical intensity, keen sense of humor, and sharp incisive mind.

Laurence Michael Polatsch, 32; a graduate of the University of Michigan, he was a partner at Cantor Fitzgerald. Trained as an attorney, Polatsch changed careers six years prior so he wouldn’t have to “fight with people the rest of his life,” said his father, Bernard Polatsch.  Two friends and Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity brothers, Scott Weingard and Marc Zeplin, were also killed on September 11, 2001.  Their names are listed together on Panel N-27 at the North Pool 9-11 Memorial.  

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 2, 2001

Laurence Michael Polatsch, an equities trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, hardly lacked for chutzpah, and may just have raised the meaning of the word to a new level. He was a free spirit who was able to talk his way into companies’ holiday parties at Manhattan hotels year after year.

Forget the pride he felt at having successfully crashed the Plaza Hotel wedding of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. He truly met his Everest on the day he was browsing at a magazine store in downtown Manhattan and the actress Julia Roberts stopped by. Mr. Polatsch said hi, then asked her out “for dinner or a cup of coffee,” recalled his mother, Linda. The actress paused, then declined — but made a point of thanking him. A few months later, in an “Entertainment Tonight” interview, Ms. Roberts wondered over the airwaves why she did not go out with that guy who tried to pick her up by the magazines.

Mr. Polatsch called the show, which then broadcast him re-enacting his proposition at the same store. Remembering the incident in the current issue of Esquire magazine, Ms. Roberts recalled that “there was a certain charm to his chutzpah.”

Many of those who attended Mr. Polatsch’s memorial celebration in Woodbury, on Long Island, where he grew up, told the story about the big date with the movie star that was not to be, and many others. “He was charismatic and fun-loving,” his mother said, “and made everyone feel terrific.”

Stephen Poulos, 45; a graduate of the University of Michigan for both undergraduate and graduate programs – MMUS, who worked as a manager at AON Corporation. After singing professionally as a baritone for 20 years, Poulos switched careers for financial reasons in 1996 and took up a career in information technology. Right before he died, he had joined an Internet discussion called the Opera Forum, where he was again able to express his love for music.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 5, 2001

Stephen Poulos spent most of the last year loosening up. He was starting to enjoy opera again after tuning it out for five years. “The louder, the higher and more Italian, the better,” his wife, Lisa, of Basking Ridge, N.J., said of his preference for operas. “I knew not to get him Mozart and things like that. They are more on the pretty side versus the powerful side.”

A high achiever, Mr. Poulos, 45, stopped listening to opera out of frustration when he realized that he could not earn a living as an opera singer after 20 years of training as a baritone. But as he rose quickly in his career in information technology, recently becoming a manager at Aon Corporation, he began to ease up on himself. He even joined the Opera Forum, an Internet discussion, using the alias billybobives, chastising members for their opera preferences.

“It was hard for him to get over leaving the opera,” Ms. Poulos said. “On good days during that time, I would say, ‘Oh, you seem happy today.’ He would say, ‘Lisa, I’m never happy. I may be happier, but I’m never happy.’ “

“This summer, I reminded him about that phrase, saying you must be happier now,” she said. “He said, ‘No, I’m actually happy.’ “

David Pruim, 52; originally from Muskegon, Michigan. David was a senior vice president for the Aon Corporation, and worked on the 103rd floor of 2 World Trade Center. David is survived by his wife Kate, also originally from Michigan, and their daughter Carrington. They lived in Montclair, NJ. David graduated from Western Michigan Christian High School (Class of 1966) in Muskegon, and Hope College in Holland, Michigan (1970). His late father, James Pruim, was mayor of Muskegon from 1994 to 1996.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 6, 2001

David and Kate Pruim were married 28 years ago, and Mrs. Pruim talks about him as if they were newlyweds. “We had an 18- year honeymoon and then our daughter was born and then more joy came into our lives,” she said. “We just thought it would go on for another 28 years.”

Mr. Pruim, 52, a senior vice president for the Aon Corporation, worked on the 103rd floor of 2 World Trade Center. “He was the kindest, nicest, most gentle 6-foot-4 person there ever was.” she said. “He made everyone he came into contact with feel good about himself, from children to adults.”

The two were from Michigan, and were introduced by friends, Mrs. Pruim recalled. “I just liked his personality, and he was gorgeous,” she said, with a full-throated laugh. They enjoyed being together, even just sitting next to each other, reading. They lived in Montclair, N.J., with their daughter Carrington, who is 10. A memorial service is being planned.

“We’re calling it a celebration of his life,” Mrs. Pruim said. “And if he walks in in the middle of it, boy, will I be the happiest person there.”

Marsha D. Ratchford, 34; born in Detroit, Michigan and lived in Washington, D.C., she worked for the Navy and was at the Pentagon the day of the attack. She is survived by her husband and three children.  

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Rodney Ratchford tried to talk about his wife in the present tense. Amid the devastation at the Pentagon, where Marsha D. Ratchford worked for the Navy as an information technician, her husband had not given up hope. It’s what she would have wanted. 

“We still got the faith. We’re still prayed every day,” said Rodney Ratchford, 38. “We have our up days, our down days . . . but we haven’t lost faith, and we never will.” 

Marsha Ratchford, 34, was listed among the missing at the Pentagon after a hijacked American Airlines jet crashed into the building on September 11. She was as strong-willed as her husband, a friendly, quiet woman born in Detroit and raised in a large family in Mobile, Alabama. She joined the Navy about 15 years ago. One day, at a training school in San Diego, she happened to exchange glances in the gym with her future husband. “She had an awesome smile,” remembered Rodney Ratchford, who served as a machinist’s mate in the Navy. 

They married soon after in Alabama, in May 1988. She had many loves in her life – working with computers and the challenge of handling crucial military messages at the Navy Command Center in the Pentagon. But few equaled her devotion as a mother. The Ratchfords have three children: an 11-year-old son, an 8-year-old daughter, and an 18-month-old daughter. “She was a mother from her heart,” said Rodney Ratchford, who works as a supervisor for a national security company. 

On the morning of September 11, Marsha Ratchford called her husband to tell him about the attacks on the World Trade Center. “She told me that the two planes had just hit the towers,” he said. “She told me, ‘I love you,’ and, ‘Have a nice day,’ and, ‘I’ll call you later.’ That was the last I heard from her.” 

Since then, Rodney Ratchford has turned to his faith and family for support, including the closeknit community drawn even closer together at Bolling Air Force Base, where he and his family live. “Everybody loved her as much as I did,” he said. 

His children have been asking questions, searching for simple explanations to complex situations as only children can. The kids ask the hardest question of all: Why? He believes that only God can provide the answer, and that only God can keep his hope intact. 

“We’re not,” he said, “going to give up.”

Gregory Richards 30, a University of Michigan graduate, who was a vice president of corporate development, e-Speed, an electronic subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald, at the World Trade Center.  Two of his friends and Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity brothers, Larry Polatsch and Scott Weingard, were also killed on September 11.  

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 24, 2001

Gregory Richards just could not stay away from New York. He was born here, grew up in Greenwich Village and went to Stuyvesant High School.

When he went off to the University of Michigan, he longed to come home. When he went to Florida to work for a hedge fund, he wanted to come back.

Even after he left Cantor Fitzgerald, moved to Michigan in 1998 to live near his wife’s parents and started his own real estate investment business, he dreamed of concrete, skyscrapers, Central Park, the trading floor.

“He missed the pace of Wall Street; he missed the camaraderie of being around the guys all the time,” said his wife, Erin. “He was a true city kid. All the things that made people crazy about New York, he liked.”

So Mr. Richards, 30, returned to the city in 2000 and rejoined Cantor Fitzgerald, this time working for eSpeed, its electronic subsidiary. He now had a son, Asher, 2, and could run in Central Park on a weekend morning and meet Asher and his wife at the playground.

Mrs. Richards, who is spending time with her parents in Michigan, said she will also return to New York. But the city, she said, will be empty without her husband. “He had New York’s cocky charisma about him,” she said. “He was cool.”

Joshua A. Rosenthal, 44; University of Michigan Graduate. Josh was a Senior Vice President with Fiduciary Trust International, working at their offices in the World Trade Center. He was raised in Livonia and graduated from Stevenson High School (class of 1975). He was a 1979 University of Michigan graduate and recognized as a Truman Scholar. He attended Princeton for graduate school. Josh is survived by his sister Helen, his two nieces, his mother Marilyn, and his father Avram. Mr. Rosenthal lived in Manhattan, but stayed closely connected to Michigan.

Profile published by THE NEW YORK TIMES on September 15, 2001

Last Sunday night, Josh Rosenthal went out for dinner with his sister, Helen, and her family to celebrate the coming of fall and the fact that they were all together again after being apart over the summer. “He had just picked up ‘Catcher in the Rye’ again,’ ” she said. “And he was just adorable about the relationship between Holden and his sister.”

A portfolio manager at Fiduciary Trust, Mr. Rosenthal most liked “to play with his nieces, but of course I would say that,” Ms. Rosenthal said. “He would tease them mercilessly, just like he would tease me when I was a little girl.” He would also bring them gifts from his many travels, like a stamp with their names in Japanese or beautiful Chinese robes. Ms. Rosenthal, who described her only sibling as her best friend, said that the two had been especially close since a two-month trip they took together through southeast Asia about 15 years ago, where they discovered each other as adults. “He wasn’t teasing me anymore,” she said.

Christina Sunga Ryook, 25; a University of Michigan graduate, who worked in human resources for Cantor Fitzgerald. She served as an officer in both the Asian American Association and the Korean Students Association at U-M. A cultural program with the latter group for adopted Korean children won recognition as best of its kind by the United Asian Associations Organization.

Special to Newsday, By EMILY NGO, September 11, 2011 

They came from Pennsylvania, Ohio, California and other corners of the country — 75 in all — to remember one young victim of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Christina Ryook, 25 when she died on the 104th floor of the north World Trade Center tower, was “the most lovely girl. Warm. Charming,” recalled her uncle Charles Shin, 69, of Cleveland. 

He was one of those who came to Ryook’s memorial weekend, which included a massive dinner Saturday night.

Ryook, a Westlake, Ohio native who lived in Manhattan, worked in human resources at Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial firm that lost 658 employees that fateful day. “Family, friends, classmates, children. We’re all here,” said Shin.

Lauren Woo, a childhood friend of Ryook’s who lives in San Diego and helps organize the annual gatherings, said usually about 50 people attend.

But this year, there was a larger turnout and her parents, Dae Jin and Kyung, for the first time visited the newly opened 9/11 memorial in lower Manhattan. There, they used blue crayon to make a rubbing of their daughter’s name, Christina Sunga Ryook, as it’s inscribed on the memorial.

Sunday afternoon, some members of the memorial party attended a Cantor Fitzgerald-hosted ceremony under a sprawling white tent in Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield.

Friends and family wore T-shirts in blue — the same blue as Ryook’s alma mater, University of Michigan — with the name of the foundation created in Ryook’s honor. Shin said the foundation funds “scholarships, charities, libraries, everything, because she was our everything.”

Brock J. Safronoff, 26; raised in Traverse City, Michigan. Brock was living in New York City and working as a computer programmer at Marsh & McLennan in the World Trade Center. He was an avid athlete and Detroit Lions fan. He is survived by his wife, Tara, whom he met while attending Amherst College.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 30, 2001

Tara Neelakantappa introduced Brock J. Safronoff to classical music; his compact disc collection quickly surpassed hers. She turned him on to reading on the loftier side of Stephen King, and he packed Kafka in their honeymoon suitcase.

“I would introduce him to something and before I knew it he was telling me everything about it,” said the woman who on Aug. 4 became Mrs. Safronoff.

There was one passion that consumed Mr. Safronoff, 26, long before his freshman year at Amherst College, when he and his future wife were physics lab partners. It was his devotion to the Detroit Lions, which stemmed from his upbringing in Traverse City, Mich., and which required the strength to withstand continual heartbreak, said Michael A. Cohen, a friend and fellow fan.

Their friendship was based on a shared fantasy that the Lions would one day make it to the Super Bowl. When they met to watch games at an Upper East Side bar, they rarely discussed work.

Mr. Cohen, in fact, had forgotten Mr. Safronoff worked as a computer programmer at Marsh & McLennan. “I had to look up on his wedding announcement where it was that he worked,” Mr. Cohen said. “I remember now that he told me he had this great view.”

Lt. Col. Kip Taylor, 38; originally from Marquette, Michigan. Kip was an assistant to three-star general Tim Maude at the Pentagon, and died there when American Airlines flight 77 was crashed into the building. Kip attended Northern Michigan University with scholarships for basketball and ROTC, and graduated in 1985. He lived in Mclain, Virginia with his wife Nancy and son Dean. His wife gave birth to a second son, Luke, on October 25, 2001.

PENTAGON MEMORIAL FUND, INC.: 

LTC Kip P. Taylor was commissioned into the Army’s Adjutant General Corps at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan in December 1985 by his father, Lieutenant Colonel Donald R. Taylor. Kip received scholarships for both the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and basketball, and obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Management. He earned his Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. 

His key military assignments included his position as the Executive Officer to the U.S. Army Regional Personnel Center in Nuremberg, Germany; the doctrine and curriculum developer at the Fort Ben Harrison, Indiana Army Personnel School; the Adjutant and Personnel Detachment Commander of a special operations unit at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and as the Military Assistant to Lieutenant General Timothy J. Maude, DCSPER. 

Lieutenant Colonel Taylor is survived by his wife, Nancy, and two sons, Dean and Luke. 

Brian John Terrenzi, 28; was born in Michigan and lived in Hicksville, Long Island, New York.  He worked for Cantor Fitzgerald as a global network manager.  He and his wife Jane had just recently purchased their first home and Jane was expecting their first child.  

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 8, 2001

Everything was going just right for Brian Terrenzi. Last February, he started a new job as a global network manager in the treasurer’s office of Cantor Fitzgerald. Last April, he and his wife, Jane, bought their first home, in Hicksville, N.Y., and found out that she was going to have their first baby.

And last July, the couple learned it would be a girl. “There’s no girls in the Terrenzi family,” said Mrs. Terrenzi, 28, who is eight months’ pregnant. “He was just so excited. He would have made the best father.”

Mr. Terrenzi, 28, an avid skier and sportsman, used to call his wife five times during the day from his office on the 101st floor of 1 World Trade Center to check up on her. Now, she says, “the phone doesn’t ring.”

Mrs. Terrenzi, a kindergarten teacher, said she would name her daughter Elizabeth, after her husband’s mother, as he had wanted. But Elizabeth will also have a middle name, Brian, after her own father.

Lisa Marie Terry, 42; born and raised in Michigan. Lisa was a vice president with Marsh & McLennan in their Rochester, MI office. She was an experienced and devoted horsewoman, having ridden since childhood.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 18, 2001

Not long ago, Lisa Marie Terry’s days revolved around her horses and horse competitions — an undertaking only slightly less demanding than caring for twin 2-year-olds.

“The horses eat before the people eat,” said Sarah Tupper, a horsewoman and friend. “The stalls are cleaned before the beds are made.” On weekends, Ms. Terry, 42, was up by 5 a.m. for shows.

But she had drawn away from the horse world. Smoke, her favorite mare, died. “She bought Smoke as a teenager,” Ms. Tupper said. “In those days, riding was about saddling Smoke, meeting your best friend and trail riding all afternoon.”

The pressure at work — she was a vice president at Marsh & McLennan’s Michigan office — had increased. She was away on business more often. On Sept. 11, her work took her to the World Trade Center.

Two years ago, she sold the farm. But last summer, she was horse shopping again. She missed the riding life and the company of horse people. “We always end up at somebody’s barn,” Ms. Tupper said. “People have great houses. But we sit in the barn, drink a beer and talk about horses.”

Eric (Rick) Raymond Thorpe, 35; born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and lived in New York City.  He worked for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods where he was a top salesperson.  Mr. Thorpe was an active volunteer and gave back to his community. He is survived by his wife and daughter.  

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 2, 2001

The booming voice, competitiveness and self-assurance that helped Eric Thorpe become the star quarterback of his undefeated high school football team in Wilbraham, Mass., served him well on Wall Street. Mr. Thorpe, 35, known as Rick, was one of the top salesmen at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

But Mr. Thorpe kept business success in perspective. He helped run a soup kitchen during college, served as a Big Brother and participated in Hands Together, an anti- poverty program in Haiti. Having grown up in a close family — he referred to his father, Raymond, as his best friend and called him nearly every day — Mr. Thorpe was thrilled when his wife, Linda, gave birth to their daughter, Alexis, last year.

Through it all coursed a nonstop sense of humor. Not even Mr. Thorpe’s parents escaped his fondness for nicknames, and he enjoyed initiating phone calls with a disguised voice. “He teased everyone, including me,” said Thomas Michaud, Mr. Thorpe’s boss.

Alicia Titus, 28; parents John and Bev are from Dexter, Michigan. Alicia had worked as a flight attendant for just nine months when her life was taken in the crash of United Airlines Flight 175. Alicia earned a degree in International Marketing at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.  

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on April 28, 2002

Greg Ernst remembers Sunday, Sept. 9, when he and his girlfriend, Alicia Titus, had been together for nine months. “It was the first time we told each other we loved each other,” he said. Soon after they had started dating, she had told him she demanded happiness. Not from him, but from herself.

Her father, John Titus, said his daughter, 28, who lived in San Francisco, loved parachuting out of airplanes and backpacking alone in Spain and Morocco. He recalled the laughter-filled cross-country trip she took with her mother in a Volkswagen convertible piled full of stuff. Since January 2001, she had enjoyed being a flight attendant. She was on Flight 175 on Sept. 11.

“You could always count on her being in a happy, joyous mood,” said her father, who is writing a book about her so other people can know how wonderful she was. And she had a way of making her numerous aunts, uncles and cousins think of themselves as her favorite, Mr. Titus said.

Mr. Ernst knew that her happiness ran deep. “She laughed in her sleep; that was something I really liked,” he said, although they never figured out what she was laughing about. “I’d hear her laugh, and say, `Lish, are you sleeping?’ and she was asleep.”

Meta L. Fuller Waller, 60; a University of Michigan graduate.  She worked as a special programs manager, Office of the Secretary of the US Army, Pentagon. When Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, Waller was working at her desk. She held a life-long interest in civil rights and attended the United Nations Conference on Racism in South Africa shortly before her death.

PENTAGON MEMORIAL FUND, INC.: 

When 60-year-old Meta Waller returned from the World Conference on Racism, she told her family it had changed her life. Waller attended the conference with a group of school children, taking time off from her work at the Pentagon, where she was special programs manager for the administrative assistant to the Secretary of the Army. She had worked there 12 years and was at her desk when the hijacked airliner slammed into the building. 

Long interested in the civil rights movement, Waller looked for inspiration to her two famous grandparents, Meta Warrick Fuller, an African American sculptor, and Solomon Carter Fuller, the first African American psychiatrist in the United States. 

Waller collected her grandmother’s sculptures and tried her own hand at art. She was also a poet; her niece, Chrislan F. Manuel, said the family is trying to collect her poems. 

Carol Fuller, Waller’s sister-in-law, said she was a gifted storyteller. Family trips to Martha’s Vineyard prompted Waller to create a series of science fiction stories about fellow ferry passengers from other planets who traveled to the Vineyard disguised as day-trippers.“There, that one could be from Pluto,” she would say. 

Waller was a world traveler. Her niece and sister-in-law loved taking all-girl vacations with her, including a recent cherished one to the British Virgin Islands. 

Waller grew up in Framingham, Massachusetts and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and her Master’s degree in Government from Harvard. 

Relatives said they are gaining strength by remembering Waller’s resolve in the face of sorrow, including the death of her husband and daughter. 

“This is a woman who has had a lot of tragedy in her life. But she went on. She continued to work – and she was successful,” Fuller said. 

Scott Jeffrey Weingard, 29; a University of Michigan graduate.  Scott worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, at the World Trade Center. He would have celebrated his 30th birthday later in September.  His friend and Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity brother, Larry Polatsch was also killed on September 11, 2001.  Their names are listed together on Panel N-27 at the North Pool 9-11 Memorial.  

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 11, 2001

A fantastic athlete he was, but “a gymnast trapeze stuntman he was not,” Marc Shapiro recalled about his friend, Scott Weingard. But being the daring sort of person who would squeeze in an adventure whenever he could, Mr. Weingard gladly volunteered to fly with the professional trapeze team while on vacation at a Club Med resort a few years ago.

“There he was, swinging along, doing his thing with his lanky body while we were cheering him on,” Mr. Shapiro said, laughing.

Friends began to call Mr. Weingard “First Time Scottie” because he was so often in the position of doing something totally out of the ordinary and new. He was also known for making friends, and keeping them. While still at the resort, Mr. Weingard, a trader at Cantor Fitzgerald who would have been 30 on Sept. 23, disappeared for a while.

Where did he go? “We found him befriending the whole island,” recalled Mr. Shapiro, a buddy since their kindergarten days in Dix Hills, on Long Island.

His girlfriend, Julie Kaufmann, called him an angel. His cousin, Jeff Honigstock, interviewed on a recent Thursday, said: “I’m missing him today. It would have been a perfect day for happy hour with Scottie.”

Meredith Lynn Whalen, 23; grew up in Canton, Michigan, where she developed a love of horses and riding and competed on the cross-country and swimming teams at Plymouth-Salem High School. Ms. Whalen earned a BA in business from the University of Michigan in 2000. Ms Whalen was a research associate with Fred Alger Management and lived in Hoboken, N.J.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 16, 2001

Meredith Lynn Whalen wanted to be a successful portfolio manager and then the owner of a horse farm in Kentucky. And between those goals, she planned to cram in a lot of travel, including many cruises.

Ms. Whalen, 23, was a research associate at Fred Alger Management on the 93rd floor of 1 World Trade Center. She grew up in Canton, Mich., where she learned to ride and cheerfully cleaned out stalls. She graduated from the University of Michigan Business School in 2000. She had worked the summer before her senior year at Goldman Sachs in London but decided she wanted to work for a smaller firm, where she thought she would get more intense training.

“It was her dream job,” said her mother, Pat. “My daughter loved the fast-paced life of the city and enjoyed all it had to offer, from the plays to the parks and museums and the night life.”

Although she had been working just 15 months, Ms. Whalen was the front-line person for researching eBay, the Internet auction company, one of Alger’s top holdings.

Ms. Whalen was already a veteran of four cruises. Her first, in the early 1990’s on the Sovereign of the Sea, was delayed because of a fire while it was docked in San Juan, P.R. She had planned to leave from Barcelona, Spain, on Sept. 15 for a 12-night Mediterranean cruise with her mother.

Marvin R. Woods, 57; was born in Owendale, Michigan and lived in Great Mills, Maryland.  He worked for 18 years as a civilian communications manager for the Navy and had been assigned to the Pentagon since the mid-1990s. Woods’ office was located where the plane was crashed into the Pentagon on September 11. 

PENTAGON MEMORIAL FUND, INC.: 

Marvin Roger Woods, the son of a sailor, enlisted in the Navy when he was in high school and went on to serve for 23 years. When he retired from the Navy in 1984, he took a six-week vacation, then reported back to his office at the Patunxent River Naval Air Station and continued in his job as director of communications, but as a civilian. 

“His job was his life,” his son, James, said. “I remember when he retired from the Navy, he cried.” The name of the 57-year-old resident of Great Mills, in St. Mary’s County, was on the Navy’s official list of those unaccounted for in the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. He had relocated there in the 1990s. 

“My husband was proud of the 40 years he gave to his country,” said his wife, Betty. 

Woods – known as “Roger” to friends and family – grew up in Owendale, Michigan. He served a tour in Vietnam, then met his wife in October 1971 while on leave. Three months later they were married, and together they went off to his next assignment in Puerto Rico. Like many military families, Woods, his wife, and their three children traveled from city to city, port to port. 

“When he would be out to sea, he would write me a letter every day,” his wife recalled. 

He was content with his life, his son said. He loved to go hunting with his brother across the Patunxent River in Calvert County and fishing in his small boat. 

“He’d seen the worst, so he chose to look at the best,” said Jane Tennyson, a Navy civil servant who worked with him at the Patunxent River Naval Air Station. 

Woods’s wife was watching TV when news of the Pentagon attack was broadcast. She hoped and prayed that her husband had already been called away to the war room or was in the courtyard taking a smoking break. 

By 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, September 12th, when the Navy officers arrived at her front door, she knew that he wasn’t. 

“They told me that my husband was officially missing,” she said. 

Sandra Lee Wright, 57; born in Detroit, Michigan and lived in Langhorne, Pennsylvania.  Sandra worked for Aon Corporation.  She is survived by her husband, daughter, and her first grandchild.  

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 11, 2001

Growing up in Bucks County, Pa., Sandra Wright was the oldest girl among nine children and the biggest adventurer. When divorce left her to raise her own daughter alone in New Jersey, she did it with gusto.

“We drove across the country in a camper when I was just a little tot,” recalled her daughter, Shelli, who gave birth to her mother’s only grandchild three months ago. “We went to Paris, skiing in Europe. Most of her family never went into New York.”

In 1992, mother and daughter both worked in Rockefeller Center, reveling in the glamour of pedicure lunch hours and “window shopping in the stores we couldn’t afford.” When Shelli went to college, though, her mother moved from New Jersey back to her hometown of Langhorne, Pa., where her family gathers 150 strong every holiday. A year and a half ago she was married there to Steven Cartledge, a man she met at a church dance.

Ms. Wright, 57, had a round-trip commute of four hours between Langhorne and Aon in the World Trade Center. “She never complained about it,” her daughter said, “because she loved New York City and she loved her family, and she got to have both.”

Marc Scott Zeplin, 33; graduated from the University of Michigan, BBA and MBA, and worked as a vice president, Cantor Fitzgerald, at the World Trade center. At U-M he was a broadcaster for Michigan sports. Marc’s son would later attend the University of Michigan.  His friend and Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity brother, Larry Polatsch was also killed on September 11, 2001.  Their names are listed together on Panel N-27 at the North Pool 9-11 Memorial. 

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on January 13, 2002

When Marc Zeplin was 4, his father took him to his first Rangers game. There, he found his calling.

Throughout his childhood, his mother would come upon him in the living room, playing an entire hockey game by himself while calling the play-by-play. He would hit the puck and run to the other side of the room to protect the goal. Meanwhile, he would announce his moves at the top of his lungs. Afterward, at the dinner table, he would recap the game in his imitation of Howard Cosell’s grating baritone.

When he went to the University of Michigan, he broadcast the games on the school radio station. His dream, said Leona Zeplin, his mother, was to be a professional sportscaster. But he was enough of a realist to know how slim his chances were.

Instead, he became a trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, entertaining clients with his sports chatter. And he looked forward to sharing years of Rangers games and sports talk with his two sons. With Ryan, the eldest, turning 3, Mr. Zeplin had already made plans to take him to his first Rangers game.