SUNY Plattsburgh to Host Annual 9/11 Commemoration at Hawkins Pond
SUNY Plattsburgh will honor those who perished as a result of terrorist attacks 25 years ago in New York City, Arlington, Va., and Stoystown, Pa., at a 10 a.m. ceremony Thursday, Sept. 10, at the Hawkins Pond memorial.
The university has honored those who died in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., across the Potomac from Washington, D.C., and in a field in Stoystown, Pa., as well as those who died in the aftermath of the attacks, every year since Sept. 11, 2002.
Three SUNY Plattsburgh alumni were among the victims, including 1984 alum Robert Sutcliffe, a broker for Harvey, Young and Yurman, who was having a breakfast meeting at Windows on the World on the 107th floor of the North Tower, William Erwin, a 1992 grad and broker with Cantor Fitzgerald, which had offices on floors 101 to 105 in the North Tower, and Brian Falb, a 1992 alum who, as a New York state trooper, was among the thousands of first responders at Ground Zero.
On Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, the first plane hit the North Tower between the 93rd and 99th floors at 8:46 a.m., effectively trapping everyone above. All 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees, and all 91 Windows breakfast guests and 79 employees lost their lives when the tower collapsed at 10:28 a.m.
Falb succumbed to brain cancer, directly linked to his service at Ground Zero, on
March 13, 2017. He was 47 years old. Although no active-duty troopers were killed
on the day of the attacks, the agency has recorded dozens of deaths in the 25 years
afterwards.
Thursday’s ceremony will include remarks, the tolling of the bell, a wreath-laying at the memorial plaque, accompanied by bagpipes, and reflections from campus and community leaders.
The ceremony is open to the public. For more information, contact Karen McGrath, vice president for student and enrollment success, at 518-564-2280, or Patrick Rascoe, chief of University Police, at 518-564-2022.
— Story, File Photos By Associate Director of Communications Gerianne Downs
