As people anxiously evacuated the South Tower, some remember a calming voice singing “God Bless America” over a bullhorn. The voice belonged to Richard Cyril Rescorla, Morgan Stanley’s vice president of security. Today a white rose placed at his name honors what would have been his 77th birthday.

Born in Hayle, England in 1939, Rescorla served with the British Army in Cyprus and northern Rhodesia. In 1963, he immigrated to the United States and joined the Army. After graduating from Officer Candidate School, he fought in Vietnam as a second lieutenant with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry from 1965 to 1966. The following year, he became an American citizen.

When the World Trade Center was attacked in 1993, Rescorla was vice president for corporate security at Dean Witter Morgan Stanley and he led the company’s evacuation that day. Convinced that the terrorists would return, Rescorla created and stringently rehearsed a disaster contingency plan for the company, colleagues and family said.

On Sept. 11, he again supervised the evacuation of Morgan Stanley’s employees from the burning building. Among the 13 Morgan Stanley employees and consultants who were unable to exit the building safely was Rescorla. He was last seen climbing up the stairs to make a final sweep for other employees minutes before the building toppled. His actions that day are credited with thousands of lives. Rescorla epitomized the soldier’s code: leave no man behind.

By Jenny Pachucki, 9/11 Memorial Content Strategist 

Although Richard Eichen and Lucy Gonzalez both worked on the 90th floor of the North Tower, they were strangers before September 11, 2001. On that day, the pair evacuated the building together, escaping its collapse by seconds. Ten years later, on September 12, 2011, the two, along with other 9/11 survivors, reunited for the first time under the Survivor Tree at the 9/11 Memorial.

Eichen, a consultant at Pass Consulting Group, had started working at the World Trade Center in early September 2001 and didn’t yet have a key to the office suite. On the morning of 9/11, he was waiting near the 90th floor elevator for his colleague to arrive when he heard a loud bang and was hurled to the ground as the office erupted in flames.

Despite sustaining a severe head wound, Eichen found his way to an adjacent office where he connected with four others, including Lucy Gonzalez. They decided to evacuate as the smoke billowed and they saw large severed pieces of the building falling outside. However, Gonzalez was reluctant and wanted to wait for first responders.

“I told her, ‘Lucy, we’re not leaving anybody behind. We got to get out of here, we’re starting to burn,’ Eichen remembers. "I took her hands, and put them on my shoulders, and I held them so she wouldn’t let go.”  

Overcome with anxiety, Gonzalez fainted near the 25th floor on their decent down the stairs. After FDNY firefighters revived her with oxygen, Eichen grabbed Gonzalez and yelled, “wounded coming through!” and descended the final flights of stairs. The building collapsed minutes after they exited.   

Leaving Gonzalez with paramedics, Eichen walked to Downtown Beekman Hospital to seek treatment for his head wound. In the waiting room, he first learned of the terrorist attacks from the news. Still bloody, wearing his hospital gown and a bandage wrapped around his head, Eichen discharged himself and walked over the Brooklyn Bridge toward his parents’ home in Rockaway, Queens. After he crossed the bridge, a stranger offered him a ride and he soon was reunited with his parents.

Weeks later, he tried to locate Gonzalez. Finally able to connect through email, he confirmed that she was okay. It was not until 10 years later that the two decided to reunite and confront their memories together.

They met at the then-newly-dedicated 9/11 Memorial under the Survivor Tree at a special event for survivors. “I really believe the beauty and peace of the memorial affected everyone there,” Eichen said.  

 By Jenny Pachucki, 9/11 Memorial Content Strategist 

This is a big week here; baseball season has officially started.  There are several die hard New York Yankees fans on staff: 9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels being the most enthusiastic, by far.

As work continues on the 9/11 Memorial Museum, after a while, everything seems to connect to the larger story of 9/11 - even the Bronx Bombers. We have several objects in our ever-expanding collection that relate to the great New York baseball club.  Some survivors credit the rained out  Yankees-Red Sox game on Sept. 10, 2001 with saving their lives because it meant they instead watched the New York Giants play. Monday Night Football ran very late, and  in turn, many who watched it were running behind to work on the morning of September 11, narrowly escaping a fate shared by thousands.

Recently an EMT first-responder donated the ticket stub from the September 23, 2001 interfaith “Prayer for America” service that was held at Yankee Stadium to honor the victims of the WTC attacks.  Thousands attended.  Many recall the emotional service and felt it was fitting for New Yorkers to mourn the loss of life and try and heal a wound together at the home of  New York City’s famed club.

Then there's a much more personal connection like the well-worn Yankees cap donated to the museum by the family of Steven Morello of Bayonne, NJ. Morello, who died on 9/11, worked as a facilities manager  in the north tower of the World Trade Center.

The curatorial team at the 9/11 Memorial Museum is working to document these stories of fate, and collective grief and healing.  Sometimes a simple artifact, such as a ticket stub, is worth its weight in gold, and helps to visualize these bigger feelings and concepts that are the fabric of this history.

By Jenny Pachucki, Oral Historian for the 9/11 Memorial Museum