| Issue #48, March 9, 2007 |
Memorial Absconded
Two Southampton College Graduates Were Victims of 9/11. Long Island University Took Their Memorials When They Left.
By Alan-Michael Braveman
On a sunny September 11 morning in 2001, I was driving north on the FDR Drive heading to Long Island over the Triborough Bridge. I had been trying to reach my wife on the cell phone and was almost oblivious to all the screaming fire engines and police cars heading south as I was heading north.
I remember thinking to myself. ”Must be one hell of a fire.”
As I turned up the ramp, I gave up trying to reach my wife at her office and began searching in my pockets for a token to pay the toll with. I noticed what seemed to be smoke coming from the area of the Twin Towers and then seconds later it looked like something crashed into the towers. My early morning reverie was over and I realized the world would never be the same again. It was a few minutes after 9 (9:03 to be exact) and the second plane had just crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
That morning, four planes had been hijacked by terrorist fanatics who ultimately would be responsible for the deaths of more than 3000 people. I spent much of the next few months covering this sad story in pictures and words for Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper. I never connected the tragedy with my alma mater, Southampton College. I covered this news story and recorded the images and facts from hundreds of interviews with as much accuracy and passionate interest as I could stand. Some of the images and stories still bring tears to my eyes. Now, more than 6 years later, the tragedy of 9/11 rears up again in another form.
Amongst the dead from the collapse of the Twin Towers was Christopher Racaniello, a 1997 graduate of Southampton College. He worked for Cantor Fitzgerald on the101st floor of the Twin Towers and was one of the more than 700 Cantor Fitzgerald employees murdered that day. His body, like so many others was never found. A Scholarship fund was established at Southampton College in his honor.
The same day, at 8:01 a.m., United Airlines flight 93 left Newark Airport for San Francisco. The flight carried 38 passengers, two crewmembers, and five flight attendants. It was one of the four hijacked planes that morning. The pilot and co-pilot were killed by the terrorists and as the terrorists began to spin out their deadly plans, the passenger’s cell phones began to tell a deadly story of other hijackings and the burning towers.
The true story of what really happened on the plane can only be surmised. But we do know that there was an attempt by some of the passengers, to take back control of the plane and prevent it from crashing into another building and causing more deaths.
At 10:10 a.m., Flight 93 crashed into the ground in a field near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. No one survived.
One of the passengers aboard this flight was Linda Gronlund, of Sag Harbor New York. Linda was a 1976 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Southampton College. She had worked as an admissions counselor at the college after graduation, and later worked for Volvo North America and then BMW North America where, as an environmental engineer, she became a major proponent of replacing freon as a cooling agent in cars and promoting hydrogen fueled cars for, a less oil dependant, automotive future.
BMW established a $50,000 memorial scholarship fund for Linda at MIT, that has now grown to over $200,000.
The staff, faculty and students of Southampton College collected money to purchase a memorial bench, with two plaques on it to commemorate both of these students. The memorial bench rested on a shady spot outside Abney Peak Lodge, where it over looked the entire campus.
When Southampton College was sold to Stony Brook, Long Island University moved the Memorial bench to its CW Post Campus. LIU neglected to notify anyone that the bench and its memorial plaques was being moved to a different campus.
The intervening years have seen a Park in Sag Harbor named in honor of Linda Gronlund and the recent release of the highly acclaimed film, United 93, makes her memory fresher still.
The removal of the memorial bench has prompted the former director of Alumni Affairs of Southampton College, Carol Gilbert, to start collecting funds for a new bench from friends and alumni of Southampton College. Anyone wishing to contribute to this worthy cause can send checks to:
Carol Gilbert
208 Millstone Brook Rd
Southampton, NY 11968
The new bench will reside in the Linda Gronlund Park in Sag Harbor. Next fall a plaque, commemorating both Linda Gronlund and Christopher Racaniello, will be placed on the Stony Brook Southampton Campus to commemorate their memories and lives as Southampton College students.
To those of us who lived through and witnessed the destruction of 9/11, those memories will always be with us. They are life-defining moments.
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