On the planes

Peter A. Gay, son of Peter B. Gay ’35, was one of the 81 passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 11, which left Boston at 7:59 a.m. bound for Los Angeles and became the first plane flown into the World Trade Center, its north tower. A vice president of operations for Raytheon Company in Andover, Massachusetts, he had begun traveling weekly to California earlier last year on consulting work. In late October, against all odds, his body was discovered at Ground Zero, apparently thrown from the exploding airliner. He was 54 and left behind a wife, an 8-year-old daughter and two grown sons. . . . Father Francis E. Grogan, CSC, ’51 of Easton, Massachusetts, was on United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston, the second plane flown into the World Trade Center, its south tower. The 76-year-old priest, who served in the Navy during World War II, was traveling to California to visit his sister. He had been holding a standby ticket on a Delta flight to California, but a friend gave him a first-class ticket on the doomed jetliner. His sister was unaware of the switch and became concerned when he didn’t call from Cleveland, where the Delta flight was diverted after the hijackings became known. The priest was about to become chaplain of a retirement home for Holy Cross brothers in Valatie, New York. He had just completed three years as religious superior of the Holy Cross Fathers Residence in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Before that he was an assistant pastor at Holy Cross Church in Easton, Massachusetts, from 1990 to 1998. Father Grogan was remembered as a strong spiritual leader and friendly man who probably got to know a few people on board the plane that day. In the final minutes he likely gave them comfort and openly prayed, people said. More than a thousand people attended his funeral Mass at Holy Cross Parish in South Easton. At the end, a Navy honor guard played taps and presented the flag to the sister who had waited for him in California. . . . One of the flight attendants on the same plane as Father Grogan was Amy Jarret, 28, of North Smithfield, Rhode Island. She was the daughter of Aram P. Jarret ’65, sister of Jay Jarret ’91, granddaughter of the late Aram P. Jarret Sr. ’38 and niece of new Keough Hall rector Father Peter Jarret, CSC, ’86, ’91M.Div. Father Jarret said his niece was a gentle person who loved people. She loved Notre Dame, too, and would come out for a football game every year with her brother. She always had a smile on her face, a fellow flight attendant said. . . . Dora Marie Menchaca ’77, 45, associate director of clinical research for the biotech firm Amgen, was on her way home to Santa Monica, California, aboard American Airlines Flight 77, the plane flown into the Pentagon. She had come to Washington to meet with the Food and Drug Administration about a new drug for prostate cancer. Thanks to a canceled meeting, she was going home early, having grabbed a last-minute seat on the plane. Originally from San Antonio, Texas, she was proud of her Mexican-American heritage and would lecture youth in Los Angeles about the importance of getting a college education. She left behind a husband, a 5-year-old son and an 18-year-old daughter, Imani, who plays soccer at Notre Dame’s sister institution, the University of Portland. When she secured the last-minute seat, she left her husband a voice mail message saying she was looking forward to getting home and would spend the afternoon planting roses with their son. . . . On the same plane as Menchaca was Washington lawyer Karen Kincaid, 40, wife of Peter Batacan ’83. A specialist in telecommunications law and partner in the law firm Wiley, Rein & Fielding, she was flying to Los Angeles for two days to attend a convention of wireless communication companies, said her husband, also a telecommunications attorney. She had been thinking of taking a later flight and only the day before booked a seat on American 77, which left Dulles Airport at 8:10 a.m. Batacan had thought about accompanying his wife to catch up with a Notre Dame friend in L.A. but had commitments and figured it was going to be such a short trip it wouldn’t be worth it. “Karen was a combination of a really top-caliber attorney but also a very kind and loving person,” he said. “We were really just a good team.” They had been married five years.

At the Pentagon

Army Lieutenant Colonel S. Neil Hyland Jr. ’77, 45, was awarded the Legion of Merit and the Purple Heart as his remains were laid to rest November 8 in Arlington National Cemetery. Chief of the accessions and strategies branch of the Army’s deputy chief of staff for personnel, he had been in temporary offices on the opposite side of the Pentagon not long ago while his regular office area, the side obliterated by the jetliner, underwent a renovation and fortification. In his younger days Neil Hyland seriously considered becoming a priest, spending a year and a half at the Holy Cross order’s Moreau Seminary. Two friends he made there who went on to become priests are now Notre Dame faculty members — Michael Baxter (theology) and Austin Collins (art). Hyland had returned to Washington in June 2000 after three years of service in Hawaii. A bachelor, he’s remembered as the life of every party, someone who could keep everyone laughing without ever telling a joke. He came from a tight-knit family in California and became like a member of his friends’ families wherever he went.

At the World Trade Center

Robert Ferris ’62, father of Anne (Ferris) Smith ’94 and father-in-law of Derran Smith ’94, worked on the 102nd floor of the second-hit, south tower as a senior vice president and consultant in the risk management division of Aon Corporation. The insurance brokerage and consulting company lost about 200 of its 1,350 employees in the building. When the first plane hit the neighboring tower Ferris called his wife at a Catholic elementary school in Garden City, New York, where she teaches prekindergarten. He wanted to let her know he was okay. About the same time, their son, Bob, a doctor at Saint Vincent’s Hospital, the one closest to the WTC, was emerging from his apartment onto Sixth Avenue. He noticed smoke coming from the north tower, rushed back inside and called his dad, who again said he was fine and would call back. (After the plane hit the first tower, announcements were made over the speakers in the second telling people to stay where they were, that their building was secure.) By the time the son re-emerged from his apartment building, the second plane had struck. Knowing that an emergency was developing, he ran to the hospital. His father was never heard from again. The executive had been a volunteer fireman for 20 years, an emergency medical technician and captain of a rescue squad. That background likely contributed to his not getting out. “We knew it was his nature to help people,” Anne Smith said. “He couldn’t have left that building having to walk over somebody. He couldn’t live with himself.” . . . Gregory Milanowycz, 25, grandson of the late Joseph Milanowycz ’49, was an insurance broker for Aon. As the disaster unfolded, he called his mother and later made contact with his father by cell phone. By that time he and about 30 co-workers lay trapped in the northeast corner of the burning building’s 93rd floor. His father had called the fire department and was relaying to him the dispatcher’s instructions: Lie on the floor, wedge damp cloths under the doorways, refrain from talking to save oxygen. As the son repeated these orders to those around him, he started coughing a lot and asked if he should break a window to let out the smoke and heat. Then came his final words: “Dad, I just want to let you know I love you and tell Mom I love her and tell Steve I love him.” Steve was his twin brother. . . . Herman C. Broghammer, 58, father of John Broghammer ’96, worked in the second tower for Aon as a vice president and insurance broker. The son of German immigrants, he was looking forward to retirement in four years after providing for his family. Both John and his sister, Amy, are in graduate school. “You know how some people get crankier as they get older?” his wife, Ursula, told a reporter. “He never did. He was always that gentle, sweet person.” Herman Broghammer was attending a meeting on the second tower’s 103rd floor at the time of the attack. . . . A 1996 Saint Mary’s College graduate, Suzanne Kondratenko, 27, traveled from Chicago to New York for a meeting in Aon’s offices on September 11. The management consultant was last seen heading down the stairs from the 90th floor of the second tower. . . . Tim Murphy ’56 lost his son Kevin, who worked on the 100th floor of the first tower as a vice president for claims adjustment at the insurance broker Marsh & McLennan. The company lost 292 employees in the attack. Tim Murphy said it was some comfort to learn that the floors around which his son worked were instantly consumed by the first plane’s fireball; his son hadn’t suffered. Kevin’s younger brother Jack worked for Chase Manhattan in a building three blocks away and was just getting off a ferry from New Jersey at the time of the attack. . . . Katie McCloskey, daughter of Richard McCloskey ’67 and sister of Leslie McCloskey ’90, also worked for Marsh & McClennan, as a computer help-desk technician on the 97th floor. The South Bend native had moved to New York earlier in the year. She worked an unusual schedule — Saturday through Tuesday (she also worked part time as a waitress) — so her parents weren’t sure at first if she was in the building. She was supposed to come home to South Bend the next day to attend a friend’s wedding that weekend. . . . Angie Gutermuth ’95 lost her fiancé, Christopher M. Dincuff, 31, who worked on the 92nd floor of the first tower as an energy account executive with Carr Futures, a global institutional brokerage firm. He was a hopeless romantic, she told a newspaper, always doing special things for her. The couple had planned to marry next September. . . . Richard Lynch Jr., 31, son of Dick Lynch ’58, the former football All-American, NFL star and long-time radio analyst for the New York Giants, was working on the 84th floor of the second building as a bond trader for Euro Brokers Inc. He was married and the father of a baby daughter. . . . Edward Francis “Teddy” Maloney III, 32, grandson of James J. O’Neal ’42, worked on the 105th floor of the first tower as an account manager for the TradeSpark division of the financial services conglomerate Cantor Fitzgerald, the company that lost close to 700 employees. He and his wife were expecting their second child in November, a daughter to be named Teddy Bray Maloney. Their other daughter was 14 months old. Teddy Maloney made it a point to phone home to his wife, Brinley, in Darien, Connecticut, three or four times a day. He had just made his first call of that day at 8:40 a.m., minutes before the attack. Cantor Fitzgerald had promised to transfer him to the company’s Darien office next February after the baby’s arrival. . . . On the same floor with Maloney was Michael Lunden, 37, a vice president of the TradeSpark division and son of Jerry Lunden ’57. An indicator of how many close friends he had was that he had been in 26 weddings. He preferred to wear loafers without socks to work, and at his memorial service all the men went sockless in tribute. He left behind a wife and a 9-month-old son. . . . Four victims with Notre Dame connections worked for Cantor Fitzgerald a floor below: Timothy Kelly, younger brother of Shawn P. Kelly ’74 and youngest son of the late John D. Kelly ’44, was a municipal bond broker. He was married and the father of three: a girl, 5; a boy, 3; and a daughter born just a few days before the attack. “Either you liked Tim or you didn’t know Tim,” said his brother John. Armand Reo ’62 lost both his son, John, 28, and his son-in-law, John Swaine, 37, who worked together on the 104th as bond traders. Swaine had worked for Cantor Fitzgerald for about 10 years and helped get his brother-in-law the job last May. He’d been married to John’s sister, Suzanne, for 13 years. John Reo had been living temporarily with them and their three daughters in Larchmont, New York, but he was moving into his own apartment in the East Village in October. James Patrick, 30, brother of Kevin Patrick ’92 and brother-in-law of Julie Patrick ’92, was another bond trader on the 104th. He was talking on the phone with a client when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the building. The client later told the family about the conversation. He said Patrick interrupted and simply said the building was being evacuated because it had been hit by a plane. He and his wife were expecting their first child, a boy, in October. They had celebrated their first anniversary the weekend before. . . . Paul K. Sloan, 26, grandson of John Berres ’44, worked on the 89th floor of the second tower as a bond research director of the investment banking firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. After the first plane struck the opposite tower, he called his father on the West Coast to say he was all right. Seeing smoke from the first tower on TV, his father told him to get out. He said he would but then the phone went dead, probably from the second plane hitting his building in the vicinity of his floor. . . . Tommy Clark, 37, son of Richard J. Clark ’57, son-in-law of Joe DiLallo ’56 and nephew of David Clark ’56, was a vice president for the bond broker Sandler O’Neill & Partners on the 104th floor of the second tower. It’s said he loved the camaraderie of his workplace. “Eighty-six people he worked with are gone,” brother Jimmy Clark told a newspaper reporter. “If Tommy had survived, he would have been a basket case.” He left behind a wife and two children, ages 2 and 5 months. His wedding band was found with his remains. Two others with Notre Dame connections worked on the 104th floor of the second tower for Sandler O’Neill: Timothy G. Byrne, 36, brother of Notre Dame sophomore Colin Byrne ’04, was a bond trader. He was last heard from when he phoned his mother to tell them he’d just seen the first plane crash into the building next door. Apparently feeling safe because of the announcement that his building was secure, he said he wished he had a camera to take a picture. A bachelor, Tim Byrne had been a surrogate father to his eight brothers and one sister since their father — whose birthday was September 11 — died in 1986 at age 47. He loved working in the Twin Towers so much that one of his brothers had given him a framed photo of the complex for a Christmas present the previous year. The other Domer relation on the 104th floor of Tower Two was Howard G. Gelling Jr., 28, husband of Chrissy O’Reilly ’96. He was a managing director of Sandler O’Neill. The couple, who wed in May 2000, had met at Sandler O’Neill. She worked there until leaving in 1999 to begin law school. The equity department where they had both worked was an extremely tight-knit group, she said, and many co-workers were close friends of theirs. “I try to find solace in the fact that Howard spent his last moments with people who loved him; I know they all would have been taking care of each other up to the very end.” No one from the department who showed up for work that day made it out alive. . . . Patrick W. Danahy, 35, cousin of Michael Whitaker ’89, worked on the 90th floor of the second tower as a portfolio manager for Fiduciary Trust company. He was last seen by a co-worker giving instructions to others on how to get out of the building. He left behind a wife and two children, ages 4 and 2. A third child was expected in October. . . . Bonnie S. Smithwick, 54, wife of Jim Smithwick ’65, worked on the 93rd floor of the first tower as a portfolio manager for Fred Alger Management. After the plane hit her building, she called her husband’s office across the street in the World Financial Center, but he had already gone out to see what was going on, and the connection with her was lost before he got back. She had been with the company just over a year and loved her job. None of the 36 people at work that day at Fred Alger Management survived. In addition to her husband, she left behind a son and daughter. . . . Robert W. McPadden, 30, husband of Kate (Bambrick) McPadden ’94, was a firefighter with Engine Company 23 in Manhattan and on the scene shortly after the second plane hit. The son of a firefighter, he wasn’t even supposed to be working that day, having swapped shifts with another firefighter. The couple were exactly a month away from their third anniversary and were supposed to close on a house the next day. It’s believed he was on the 45th floor of the second tower when it collapsed. . . . Thomas Mingione, 34, nephew of Anthony Mistretta ’48, was another firefighter who lost his life responding to the attacks. He had worked in a quiet neighborhood and wanted a transfer to one with more action. He got it, becoming a member of Brooklyn’s Battalion 38. He had married in July 2000 and his wife was in the last trimester of pregnancy, carrying their first child . . . . Stephen Fallon, a member of the Program of Liberal Studies and English faculties, lost his eldest brother, William, who worked on the 62nd floor of the first tower as an executive for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Everyone else in his division got out safely.

Sources: family, friends, news reports