So today, September 11, 2026, marks the 25th anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks on America.  For those of us who are baby boomers, that day is seared in our memory as are the days of the President John F. Kennedy assassination, the day that astronaut Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, and the day of the space shuttle Challenger implosion.  I’m amazed that each of those days was simply a 24 hour period — yet each of those days is ingrained in my memory and has become a dateline of how my life has been measured . . . as I measure time in my life as happening either before or after those dates.

 

I began the day in 2001, as it was the 2nd Tuesday of the month, leading our monthly pre-need seminar for invited senior guests.  I remember a guest, and I could tell you who it was, mentioning to me as he arrived that “a plane had hit the World Trade Center”.  Thinking it was a small passenger plane I thought little of it.  We did the seminar and then, since we did not have a funeral that day and Tuesday was my golf day, I raced out to the first tee.

 

Editor’s Note:  Today’s article is a re-print of an earlier article that Funeral Director Daily published on an anniversary of 9/11.  The dates have been changed but the history, feelings, and memory remain the same for me.

 

Cell phones were turned off and I am pretty sure we did not have text messaging at that time so we had no reason to look at our phones.  I vividly remember coming into the clubhouse following the round of golf and what was usually a boisterous atmosphere had not a soul, sans the bartender, in the room.  The television had CNN on it and the bartender caught my foursome up to speed with what had happened.  Like everybody else in America, I was stunned and raced home to watch CNN and its reporting for the rest of the night.

 

That day 25 years ago has changed a lot of things.  We now have the TSA and the rules it has brought to travel. . . including, for our safety, lines at airport terminals.  A formerly pretty trusting way of life with strangers we meet has turned into a more guarded view of them and everything else.

 

However, as funeral directors and others in the death care profession — a lot has remained the same.  We still aim to serve families one family at a time and are always there to help them walk through their grief regardless of how that loved one was lost.

 

And, many of my colleagues remember more of that day 25 years ago than I do. . . .because they were there to walk hand in hand with those families through their grief.  It was family members of office workers, police officers, and fire fighters in New York City that needed care.  It was family members of our armed forces heroes in Washington, and it was the family members of all kinds of just normal folk on Flight 93 that was crash landed in a rural field in Pennsylvania.

 

Funeral directors and other industry workers rose to the task to serve those families with compassion.  I was fortunate to meet a sister of Minnesota’s own Tom Burnet, Jr. who was one who helped foil the intended plans of crashing Flight 93 into our nation’s capitol and died doing it.  When she learned that I was a funeral director, she told me the story of funeral director and coroner Wally Miller of Somerset, Pennsylvania.  It was in his duty area where Flight 93 was brought down and she told me he was a “hero” to the families for his compassion and effort.

 

I’ve never met Mr. Miller, but as a fellow funeral director, I was not surprised that one of our colleagues would give such service above self.  That just emanates in our profession.

 

So, as we remember that awful day from 25 years ago today, let’s also remember the goodness that our profession will always provide to our nation on days like that.

 

Related — This is a 2017 article on Wally Miller and his recollections of his work following the crash.

 

Bringing 9/11 home:  Of the people killed at the World Trade Center, the site of the Shanksville United #93 crash, and the attack at the Pentagon on 9/11 there was one gentleman killed whose life had interesected with mine.  His name was Max Beilke and he hailed from my home community and was killed at his office in the Pentagon.  My interaction with Max was limited to being the funeral director that serviced his mother’s funeral in 1980 and his father’s funeral in 1996.  I distinctly remember the arrangements for his father in 1996 that were done between Max and I exclusively.

 

Over the years I’ve found it somewhat uncanny that Max, from a small rural communty, interesected with the world’s news and events twice.  His death on 9/11/01 would be one time but he is also known as the last American soldier to leave Vietnam as can be attested to in a network news video that is included in this report on his death from Military.com.

 

Here is Max Beilke’s page on Findagrave.com

 

Learning More:  For six years now, my wife Angie and I have wintered in a golf community in Naples, Florida.  Two of my good friends, and golfing partners there, have interesting ties to 9/11.

 

First of all, my friend Joe originally comes from the funeral service area of Wally Miller.  He’s told me great stories of Wally serving his family and is not surprised that the families of United Flight #93 appreciated the work of Mr. Miller so much.

 

Secondly, my friend Mike was an an executive employee of Cantor Fitzgerald, the company that had 960 New York City based employees and occupied floors 101 thru 105 of the North Tower.  Of those 960 employees, 658 lost their lives that morning. . . that’s about 68%.  Mike happened to be on an airplane enroute to Houston, Texas, that day or he would have been in the office.

 

I texted Mike yesterday and told him I would be thinking about him on Friday.  His text back probably says it all about the survivors of those that died, “Thanks Tom — always a tough day — tough to believe it’s 25 years“.

 

Of those 302 employees that survived, most had not yet arrived at the office including CEO Howard Lutnick, who was late to work that morning because he was dropping his young son off for his first day of kindergarten.  You may recognize that name as the United States 41st Secretary of Commerce, serving in the Trump cabinet since being confirmed by the Senate on February 18, 2025.

 

• I had this article all ready to go and then noticed this article about Lutnick and the Cantor Fitzgerald story.  It’s a good read.  “The kindergarten drop-off that saved Howard Lutnick and the 658 who never made it home” — The Washington Examiner

 

May God bless all those who perished that day and continue to bless the families and other survivors that have to live with that loss.

 

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