By William Coffman, Staff Writer

The United States will come together Friday to mark 25 years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The horrors of 9/11 have ingrained themselves in the conscious of our country, and no matter who you ask, they likely remember where they were that day.

Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, seemed like it would be a normal day. Certainly, at Xavier it seemed so. The biggest item on the agenda of the faculty-staff bulletin that day was the presidential inauguration academic convocation. Father Michael Graham had been named President of Xavier earlier that year in January and was set to take the stage in the Cintas Center, which was just over a year old.

At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. What was a normal day would soon see the deadliest act of terrorism in world history, and the most devastating attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor in 1941. By the days end, four hijacked planes brought down the Twin Towers, crashed into the Pentagon and likely would have hit the Capitol Building or the White House in Washington DC, if not for the brave passengers on board forcing the plane down into a field in Shanksville, Pa.

In the aftermath, the country pledged to never forget. In its 2002 edition, Xavier Magazine decided to spotlight five stories of people connected to the university and what happened to them on 9/11.  

Bill Morgan graduated with an MBA from Xavier in 1982. He was having breakfast at the Marriott Hotel, just below the Twin Towers. He felt the impact of the first plane and saw through the glass ceiling of the hotel debris raining down from the explosion above. He left the hotel, witnessed the second plane hit the south tower and decided to get out of Manhattan, making it onto a ferry that took him to New Jersey.  

Louis Dissel, Kevin Gareau and Jason Rottinger were all from the class of 2001, and worked on the 61^st floor of the south tower for Morgan Stanley. All three were in different parts of the south tower when the north was hit, and all 3 survived the attacks. Once outside of the tower, Dissel bought a camera and captured images of the north tower burning, before capturing the impact of the second plane hitting the south tower. 

Phill Summe, a member of the class of 1991, was set to fly on United Flight 93, the flight that crashed in Shanksville. He changed flights to make it to a meeting in San Francisco that had been moved up.  

Two alumni of Xavier were killed in the attacks of September 11^th. They were James R. Paul and Helen Crossin-Kittle. Paul was a member of the class of 1970. He served a tour in Korea, worked for Merrill Lynch after earning his MBA. He was an executive Vice President of Carr Futures attending a meeting on the 92^nd floor of the north tower when the plane hit. Paul was described as a hard worker who loved his family and was working to retire early. He was set to celebrate 35 years of marriage with his wife in 2001. 

Crossin-Kittle was an alumnus of the class of 1989. She worked on the 103^rd floor of the north tower as a networking specialist for a division of Cantor Fitzgerald. She and her husband Kevin were getting ready to start a family. Kittle was 5 months pregnant when she was killed in the attacks. Kevin learned after the attacks that the baby they were expecting was going to be a girl. He named his unborn daughter Patricia Helen, after her mother. Crossin-Kittle is remembered with a plaque on the Xavier Yard. Both Paul and Crossin-Kittle are also named on the 9/11 Memorial in New York City. 

The stories of 9/11 are ones of heartbreak and heroism and are told to honor our country’s promise to never forget.