I was 3 months into being 15 the day all our hearts broke at the same exact moment. September 11, 2001 was clear, crisp and exceptionally bright. The kind of morning Northeasterners live for. One season heading out, the other saying hello.
When I heard ‘something was happening’ (understatement of the century) I was in my 10th grade computer class at what’s now Pennsbury High School West.
My immediate reaction was to get to a payphone (those were still a thing) and call my parents. When you find out the whole world has just changed, you want to check on the people you love the most.
As I’ve gone from 15 to 40, the parts of the 9/11 story that stayed with me are the ‘best of humanity’ moments.
Strangers helping each other. Firefighters carrying 60lbs of gear up 80 flights of stairs. Final stoic calls made to family members. The fight to retake United 93.
Regular people doing brave, heroic things because they still had a choice. Do nothing or do something. Help yourself or help others. Lead with courage or succumb to fear.
The worst humans can’t ever really win if the best humans keep doing good things right up until the end.
Sadly, Bucks County had the highest death toll of any county in Pennsylvania.
Here are our 18 neighbors who lost their lives that day. We remember.
Flight 93
Louis J. Nacke II, 42 (New Hope)
Kay-Bee Toys | Passenger
Nacke was a director of distribution for Kay-Bee Toys and a father of three. He was among the passengers who learned the plane had been hijacked and decided to fight back. Their actions prevented Flight 93 from reaching its intended target in Washington, D.C. Instead, the plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Lorraine G. Bay, 58 (Langhorne)
United Airlines | Flight attendant
Bay had spent 37 years as a United flight attendant and was one of the airline’s most senior crew members. She was known as the “favorite aunt” among colleagues. On the plane that morning, she and the other crew members worked with passengers as they tried to retake the cockpit.
Flight 175
Victor J. Saracini, 51 (Yardley)
United Airlines | Captain
Saracini was the captain of United Flight 175, the second plane to strike the World Trade Center. A Navy veteran and experienced commercial pilot, Saracini and first officer Michael Horrocks attempted to resist the hijackers and transmitted information that helped alert controllers to the hijacking. Flight 175 struck the South Tower at 9:03 a.m.
North Tower
Michael A. Bane, 33 (Yardley)
Marsh & McLennan
Bane was a claims processing executive at Marsh & McLennan. His path to Wall Street wasn’t exactly conventional: he had dropped out of high school, worked as a dishwasher and chef, earned his GED and eventually went to college. He had been promoted to assistant vice president only the year before he died.
Peter A. Chirchirillo, 47 (Langhorne)
Marsh & McLennan
Chirchirillo was a project manager who made the long commute from Langhorne to the World Trade Center. His family remembered him as a “Mr. Fixit,” someone who was always willing to help, but also someone with a mischievous sense of humor. He loved his wife, his two sons and baseball.
Donald W. Jones, 43 (Fairless Hills)
Cantor Fitzgerald
Jones grew up in Levittown and graduated from Pennsbury High School before becoming a bond broker at Cantor Fitzgerald. At home, he was a husband, father of two daughters and a huge sports fan who loved the Dallas Cowboys, NASCAR and softball. He also coached his daughters’ basketball teams and was active at the YMCA.
William H. Kelly Jr., 30 (Lower Makefield)
Bloomberg Tradebook
Kelly was a Bloomberg Tradebook employee working high in the North Tower. At just 30, he was among the younger Bucks County residents lost that morning. His name is memorialized among the nine Lower Makefield residents who died in the attacks.
Joseph Lostrangio, 48 (Langhorne)
Devonshire Group
Lostrangio worked as an attorney for Devonshire Group and was based on the 77th floor of the North Tower, where the company provided services to Marsh & McLennan. He had accepted his position just a couple weeks before the attacks.
Joshua A. Reiss, 23 (Lower Makefield)
Cantor Fitzgerald
Reiss was only 23 and had been recruited by Cantor Fitzgerald just five months before 9/11. He was one of the company’s youngest international bond traders. He lived in New York but regularly came home to his parents’ house in Lower Makefield. On the morning of September 11, he was talking to a friend when he suddenly said that a plane had hit the building. It was the last anyone heard from him.
Larry Senko, 34 (Lower Makefield)
Alliance Consulting
Senko was an area vice president for Alliance Consulting and worked on the 102nd floor. He had grown up in Donora, loved sports and music, played guitar and keyboards, and had moved to Bucks County with his wife, Debbi. Their son Tyler was just 18 months old. After the first plane hit, Senko called his wife from the tower and remained calm, telling her he loved her and would make it home.
William C. Steiner, 56 (Solebury)
Marsh & McLennan
Steiner had spent more than 30 years with Marsh, beginning his career at Guy Carpenter in 1970. By 2001, he was managing director of information technology. His family had moved to Solebury Township in 1987, and he loved working in New York, where his office on the 97th floor gave him a sweeping view of the city. He was at his desk when the first plane struck.
Barbara A. Shaw, 57 (Bensalem)
Compaq
Shaw was a computer executive with Compaq, but at home she was known for two things: being a grandmother and being an incredible cook. Her grandson Ryan was the pride of her life, and she was famous for turning meals into little works of art for him. Friends and colleagues remembered her as warm, funny, generous and a mentor who took time to help younger people in business.
South Tower
James P. Berger, 44 (Lower Makefield)
Aon Corporation
Berger was a senior vice president at Aon and was on the 101st floor when the North Tower was struck. While people in the South Tower were initially being told to remain where they were, Berger immediately began getting his employees out. He helped shepherd 156 employees onto elevators and toward safety. Even after colleagues urged him to leave, he went back upstairs to make sure nobody had been left behind. The last elevator carrying his group reached the ground just 20 seconds before Flight 175 hit the South Tower. Berger was still on the 101st floor.
Jeffrey M. Chairnoff, 35 (Lower Makefield)
Sandler O’Neill & Partners
Chairnoff was a managing director in Sandler O’Neill’s mortgage finance group. A Pennsbury High School graduate, he was remembered as calm, meticulous and deeply devoted to his family. He and his wife, Helaine, had two young children, Sarah, 6, and Benjamin, just 19 months old. At home, he was known as “Mr. Clean” because he kept the kitchen spotless, and he loved making peanut butter pie with his daughter while watching the Food Network.
William R. Godshalk, 35 (Yardley)
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods
Godshalk was a vice president at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and worked on the 89th floor. His family remembered him as the adventurous, energetic one. A kid who had always loved sports and carried that wild streak into adulthood. His fiancée, Aleese Hartmann, remembered the enormous red clock visible from their desks and wrote about how much she loved him.
Donald G. Havlish Jr., 53 (Yardley)
Aon Corporation
Havlish was a senior vice president at Aon. He was a husband and father, and his youngest daughter, Michaela, was only 4. September 11 was supposed to be a milestone day for her: her first day of preschool. She was excited to tell her father about it when he came home that night. He never did. His family later told her that her father was “up in heaven, guarding us”.
John Michael Rodak, 39 (Southampton)
Sandler O’Neill & Partners
Rodak drove nearly two hours each way from his home to his job at Sandler O’Neill. But his long commute was worth it to him because once he got home, work stayed behind. He was a husband and father of two daughters, Chelsea and Devon. He practiced karate with Chelsea, went deep-sea fishing with Devon and had spent the weekend before 9/11 making dinner for his family.
Sandra L. Wright, 57 (Langhorne)
Aon Corporation
Wright was a longtime New Yorker at heart, even after moving back to her hometown of Langhorne. She was the oldest girl in a family of nine children and, by her daughter’s description, the adventurous one. She traveled across the country in a camper, went skiing in Europe and visited Paris.
Normally on Tuesdays, I try to recommend a place you should visit in the county.
So, fittingly, my recommendation this week is the Garden of Reflection in Newtown.
If you’ve never been, it’s a beautiful, quiet place to remember those we lost.
I’ll see you again Thursday.
May we never forget,
Cait, From Bucks