courant.com, no date, but within the first week after the attack,
Here are some of Connecticut's presumed victims of the plane hijackings and terrorist attacks Sept. 11 on the World Trade Center.
Laurence Abel * Bryan C. Bennett * Jeffrey D. Bittner * Christopher Joseph Blackwell * Allen Patrick Boyle * Alexander Braginsky * Frank H. Brennan * Thomas M. Brennan * Edward Calderon * Sandra Patricia Campbell * James Christopher Cappers * Christopher Carstanjen * Juan Armando Ceballos * Stephen Patrick Cherry * Geoffrey W. Cloud * Scott Thomas Coleman * Keith Eugene Coleman * Margaret Mary Conner * Kevin P. Connors * Joseph J. Coppo Jr. * Dolores Marie Costa * Brian Thomas Cummins * Paul Dario Curioli * John Bruce Eagleson * Michael Egan * Ulf Ramm Ericson * Eric Brian Evans * Wendy R. Faulkner * Edward T. Fergus Jr. * Bradley James Fetchet * John Fiorito * Bennett Lawson Fisher * Peter Christian Fry * Richard P. Gabriel Sr. * Richard S. Gabrielle * Osseni Mama Garba * James Andrew Gadiel * Thomas Edward Galvin * Christopher Gardner * Peter Alan Gay * Peter Gelinas * Robert J. Gerlich * Lawrence Daniel Getzfred * Evan H. Gillette * Ronald Gilligan * Steven Lawrence Glick * Wilder Gomez * Kiran Kuman Gopu * Edwin John Graf III * Donald F. Greene * James Arthur Greenleaf Jr. * Pedro Grehan * The Rev. Francis E. "Frank" Grogan * James D. Halvorson * Sean Hanley * Christine Lee Hanson * Peter Hanson * Susan Hanson * Timothy John Hargrave * Michele Heidenberger * Howard Joseph Heller Jr. * John Henwood * Robert D. Higley II * James L. Hobin * Judith Florence Hofmiller * Paul R. Hughes * William C. Hunt * Thomas E. Hynes * John F. Iskyan * Michael Grady Jacobs * Mark Jardim * Robert Thomas Jordon * Richard M. Keane * Maurice Patrick Kelly * William Hill Kelly Jr. * Amy R. King * Glenn Davis Kirwin * Stephen LaMantia * Gary E. Lasko * Robert A. Lawrence * Joseph A. Lenihan * Adam J. Lewis * Garry Lozier * Michael J. Lyons * Edward Francis "Teddy" Maloney III * Ada L. Mason * Kevin M. McCarthy * Juliana Valentine McCourt * Ruth Magdaline McCourt * Eamon J. McEneaney * Michael Gregory McGinty * Francis Noel McGuinn * William J. Meehan Jr. * Raymond J. Metz III * Joel Miller * Michael Matthew Miller * Cheryl Ann Monyak * Lindsay S. Morehouse * Jude Joseph Moussa * Cesar Augusto Murillo * Christopher William Murphy * Daniel R. Nolan * Robert Walter Noonan * Scott J. O'Brien * Timothy Michael O'Brien * James Andrew O'Grady * Christopher Orgielewicz * Margaret Orloske * Thomas Anthony Palazzo * James Matthew Patrick * Michel Adrian Pelletier * Joshua Piver * Jean Roger * Sean Rooney * Michael Craig Rothberg * James M. Roux * Jason E. Sabbag * Jesus Sanchez * Stacey Leigh Sanders * Sean Schielke * John Schwartz * Randolph Scott * Michael John Simon * Heather Lee Smith * Dianne Bulls Snyder * Gregory T. Spagnoletti * George E. Spencer III * Derek James Statkevicus * Craig William Staub * Madeline Sweeney * Michael C. "Mac" Tarrou * Thomas F. Theurkauf Jr. * Eric Raymond Thorpe * Amy Elizabeth Toyen * Tyler V. Ugolyn * Jonathan J. Uman * Allen V. Upton * Bradley H. Vadas * Edward Raymond Vanacore * Frederick T. Varacchi * James Thomas "Muddy" Waters Jr. * Candace Lee Williams * John Williamson * David H. Winton * Christopher W. Wodenshek * Martin P. Wohlforth * John Bentley Works * Edward P. York * Charles A. Zion
Edward P. York, 45, Wilton
Edward York and every colleague in his department who went to work on Sept. 11 were killed after the first hijacked jetliner struck the north tower of the World Trade Center. The Wilton resident was vice president and director of human resources at Cantor Fitzgerald, a company that lost more than 700 employees in the attack.
Only one person in the department, who was out of town at the time, survived, said Amy Nauiokus, a spokeswoman at the company. York, remembered as a leader and a person who got things done, was working on the 104th floor at the time of the attack.
He leaves his wife, Kimberly, and three children, said the Rev. Michael Palmer at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Wilton, where a fund has been set up to meet the immediate needs of York's family.
James Waters, 39, formerly of Litchfield
James "Muddy" Waters, a senior vice president at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. who was often quoted by the Bloomberg news service and provided financial analysts with the color behind economic data, is presumed dead.
Waters, 39, was born in Danbury and grew up in Litchfield, where his mother, Joanne Waters, lives. He also leaves a younger brother and sister.
His co-worker Jeffrey M. Zwirn remembers that Waters loved golf and going to the Hamptons, where he enjoyed sitting on the beach, reading his Barron's financial news magazines. His neighbors on the Upper East Side, Barbara and George Kovacs, remembered how "smashing" he looked when he set out each weekday for his job as senior vice president specializing in trading and sales of fixed income products.
"We will miss our positive, sweet, handsome neighbor," they said in a letter to his mother.
Waters was a graduate of George Washington University and had worked at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods since 1997.
"There's no question about it. He was enjoying a tremendous amount of success," Zwirn said.
Joanne Waters said her son, who was single, was "honest and noble" if a bit on the quiet side. He loved to talk politics and had attended three presidential inaugurals, for both Bushes, and one for Ronald Reagan.
On Sept. 11, Waters was in his office on the 89th floor of the south tower, when the north tower was struck by one of the hijacked airliners. He e-mailed colleagues at Bloomberg to say he was OK and called his mother, leaving a message with his younger brother that he was safe. Joanne Waters was at the post office when he called and tried to call him back after she returned.
The phone was busy.
Joanne Waters saw the second jet strike the south tower live on television. "I've been devastated ever since," she said Monday.
Waters said she would eventually hold a memorial service for her son as hope runs out that he will be found alive.
"It gets harder every day because there's less hope," she said.
Gregory T. Spagnoletti, 32, formerly of Waterbury
A memorial service is planned at St. Patrick's Church in Waterbury Saturday morning for Gregory T. Spagnoletti, a Connecticut native, who died in the attack on the World Trade Center, his mother, Maria Spagnoletti of Waterbury, said.
Spagnoletti, a vice president of fixed income at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., was on the 89th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center when the second hijacked jetliner struck that tower.
He had called his girlfriend and father to tell them he was safe and would call back later. He lived on the west side of Manhattan and had worked at KBW for two years.
A graduate of Watertown High School, Spagnoletti attended Curry College in Milton, Mass., on an ice hockey scholarship, and enjoyed sailing and hiking, his mother said. Since Sept. 11, the family has received an outpouring of support from his many friends. "Just nice notes telling me what a wonderful person he was," Maria Spagnoletti said.
Maria and Richard Spagnoletti have set up a memorial fund to establish a scholarship in his name.
James A. Gadiel, 23, formerly of Kent
James Gadiel began his career in Manhattan's financial district as a trader's assistant less than a year ago, moving from his father's Kent home to New York's Battery Park area.
The 23-year-old Kent native was working in the equities department at Cantor Fitzgerald when the first jetliner struck the north tower. His office was on the 103rd floor.
Gadiel's goal was to become a trader someday, said his mother, Jan Gadiel of Kent. A fan of the Mets and the Knicks, Gadiel loved watching sports and enjoyed talking politics, she said. "He was quiet, but he was the type of kid that when he said something everyone listened," she said.
Gadiel was a graduate of Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village. He graduated last year from Washington and Lee University and continued to be active in the Sigma Nu fraternity. His parents, Jan and Peter, plan a private memorial.
Christoffer M. Carstanjen, 33, formerly of Stamford
Christoffer M. Carstanjen was on his way to San Diego for a vacation when he boarded United Flight 175, the second jet that crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
Born in Stamford, Carstanjen grew up in Connecticut, and was a graduate of Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village. He lived in Turners Falls, Mass., and joined the staff at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst as a computer research analyst in November, a UMass spokeswoman said. He was a graduate of UMass' University Without Walls, and colleagues remember him as "extremely outgoing and friendly."
A trained chef, Carstanjen had an associate's degree in culinary arts from Paul Smith's College in New York. His family has established a memorial fund.
Christopher Blackwell, 42, Putnam Lake, N.Y., grew up in New Fairfield
A veteran New York City firefighter with Rescue 3, Blackwell is among the hundreds of missing rescuers who responded to the World Trade Center attack Sept. 11.
While the firefighter made his home in Putnam Lake, he kept ties to Connecticut, where he grew up in New Fairfield. Since the early 1990s, he worked part time as a paramedic with Danbury Ambulance, earning the respect of his colleagues.
"He's like our local hero. For him to work in that rescue company and then come here, he brought a lot of knowledge and experience to us in this area," said Matthew Cassavechia, director of operations at Danbury Ambulance.
He started as a volunteer fireman at the age of 16, said his mother, Frances Blackwell Allan, who lives in Danbury. He worked as a fireman for more than 20 years and was recognized with the Thomas Kenney Award for Courage and the New York Medal of Valor.
Through his paramedic work with Danbury Ambulance, he was known at the Ridgefield Fire Department, where he visited about a week before the attacks and was attempting to set up some training classes for the firefighters. His specialty, Ridgefield Fire Chief Louis Yarrish said, was building collapses and trench rescues. Yarrish described Blackwell as a dedicated family man who loved his wife, three children and work.
"He loved his job and helping people," Yarrish said. "That's Chris, he'd risk his life to save someone else's."
Cassavechia said he holds out hope that Blackwell can be found in "one of those voids or was able to seek shelter," he said. "Our feeling among everyone in this area is that there may be a chance."
Christopher Gardner, 36, Darien
Gardner, a senior executive at Aon Corp., was seen on the 78th floor of the World Trade Center trying to escape the aftermath of the attacks on Sept. 11.
His father-in-law, Kenneth Hecken, told the New York Times that the family has received one or two unconfirmed reports that Gardner got out of the building but returned to aid others inside.
"That's the kind of guy he was," Hecken said.
Gardner loved to sail and was passionate about his wife, Susan, and his two children, Christopher, 3, and Alexander, 2.
Frederick Varacchi, 35, of Greenwich
Varacchi's wife, Eileen, reached her husband on his cellphone right after learning that American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center's north tower where he worked on the 105th floor.
"I spoke to him at 9. He said he was trapped in his office and he couldn't get out. Then the phone went dead," Eileen Varacchi said. "He was just trying to get out of his office with the smoke and fire."
Varacchi, president of eSpeed, an electronic trading unit of Cantor Fitzgerald, has worked for the company for three years. A graduate of Hofstra University, he earned a master of business administration degree from New York Institute of Technology. Previously, he was managing director of global technology at NatWest Markets Group and before that, senior vice president and chief technology officer with Greenwich Capital Markets.
Eileen Varacchi described her husband as energetic, happy, funny, generous and totally devoted to his three children, aged 8, 6 and 2.
Raymond Metz, 37, of Trumbull
Metz called his wife, Patrice, from his office at Euro Brokers on the 84th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center to reassure her.
"He called me at ten of nine after the first plane hit Tower 1 to tell me he was OK and getting out," Patrice Metz said.
She hasn't heard from him since.
She, along with so many other relatives of the missing, have spent the past few days frantically searching for her husband at hospitals and armories in New York City.
She and her husband had driven in to work together that morning around 5 a.m., and parted when she headed to her job as a legal assistant at a lower Manhattan law firm.
She described her husband, a Boston University graduate, as a great guy and father of two daughters, aged 3 and 7.
"He's athletic. He would be extremely focused on getting out of there. If he had a way, he would do it. ... He wanted to see his kids," she said.
Steven Lawrence Glick, 42, of Greenwich
Glick, a financial consultant who worked for Credit Suisse-First Boston, was attending a conference at 1 World Trade Center.
He was managing director of CSFBNext in New York City and previously was a partner in Greenwich Associates. He graduated from Northwestern University and earned his master of business administration degree at Harvard University.
In his spare time he enjoyed playing tennis, running, skiing and going to the movies. He and his wife, Mari, have two children.
John Works, 36, Darien
Works, a trader on the 89th floor of the World Trade Center, saw the impact of American Airlines Flight 11 in the north tower from his office. The first thing he did was call his wife, Pam, at their Darien home.
"He said, 'Turn on the TV, a plane just hit Tower 1,'" Pam Works said.
They wondered aloud what John, who survived the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center, should do. Pam suggested leaving the building, but wasn't adamant.
"He called back and said, `They're saying our building is fine. We're not in a panic mode,'" Pam Works said.
Minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 hit the south tower.
"Why didn't I say to him, `Get out? Get out and take a walk for a couple of hours,'" Pam Works said.
Dozens of John Works' acquaintances, some his wife doesn't even know, have called her. In February he returned to Keefe Bruyette & Woods Inc., where he began his career in 1986, after nearly a decade at JP Morgan.
They are building a house in Rowayton, and Oct. 7 will be their 12th wedding anniversary. They have a 3-year-old daughter, Allison. Pam Works hasn't given up hope yet that her husband, an avid sailor, is still alive.
"Today, I'm extremely lonely," she said. "I can't throw in the towel. What I'm battling with today is when do you throw in the towel."
Stephen Cherry, 42, Stamford
"You never have met a man less pretentious and more devoted to his family than Stephen,'' Cherry's friend and Hemlock Drive neighbor Rose M. Buchetto said.
A prominent partner at Morgan Stanley, "he never boasted. You wouldn't have known it,'' Buchetto said. "His world was his four boys and his wife, Mary Ellen. They were recently back from a trip to Montana.''
Cherry, 10 days shy of his 43rd birthday, managed to call a colleague just moments after the first hijacked airliner smashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center.
Family members said Cherry appears to have been helping others escape. He has not been heard from since.
Edward Francis 'Teddy' Maloney, 32, Darien
Maloney, a bond trader, started working at the financial securities and brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center about three weeks ago. He grew up in Rye, N.Y., and Greenwich, Conn., and went to New England College and Proctor Academy in New Hampshire.
His aunt Nancy Shepard said the family hasn't given up hope that "Teddy" will come home. "There are all these hot shots and jerks on Wall Street. But he was the sweetest guy you'll ever meet," she said.
His daughter, Mason, 1, hurts the most. "They were so attached. She doesn't understand what's going on, but she took a nap in her father's old room, and gravitated to it. She kissed his picture and didn't want to let it go," Shepard said.
Maloney and his wife, Brinley, are expecting another child.
Edwin Graff III, 48, Norwalk
Graff was seated in his Cantor Fitzgerald office on the 103rd floor of the north tower talking on the phone to his brother when the first jet slammed into the tower. In a second call to his brother, he reported there was fire everywhere and people were throwing chairs through windows in a desperate attempt to get out.
A divorced father of three, Graff has not been heard from since. Only 303 of the company's 1,000 employees who worked on floors 101, 103, 104 and 105 have been accounted for.
"Right where he was all you could see was thick, billowing black smoke. Everyone up there died. There's just no way,'' Graff's bother, Michael, of Armonk, N.Y., said.
Clinging to a shred of hope, Michael Graff filed a missing person's report on his brother Friday.
Martin Wohlforth, 47, Greenwich
The managing director of the investment firm Sandler O'Neill was at work with dozens of co-workers on the 104th floor of the south tower when the first plane struck the north tower.
Wohlforth called his wife, Susan, president of the Junior League in Greenwich, saying Port Authority officials had advised south tower workers that their building was safe. Susan Wohlforth started home.
Twenty minutes later, after the second plane hit, Susan Wohlforth's secretary received a scratchy, faint phone call. Martin Wohlforth identified himself twice, and asked for Susan. Then the connection was lost.
Susan Wohlforth and the couple's 16-year-old daughter, Chloe, went to the disaster scene and showed his picture around, hoping for a bit of news. They heard nothing. At least 70 Sandler O'Neill employees have not been accounted for.
"He is truly an excellent, husband, father and neighbor," said Susan's sister, Cricket Burns. "He is so well loved."
Charles Zion, 54, Greenwich
Carole Zion heard her husband's boss say the words she did not want to hear.
In a TV news interview, a stunned Howard Lutnick, chairman of the financial securities and brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald, said there were no signs that Cantor employees made it out of the north tower.
Charles Zion, an equities trader for the large international firm, was the father of 16-year-old Zachary, a Greenwich High School student.
"He was a great guy and a great husband," said Carole Zion.
Jason Sabbag, 26, formerly of Greenwich
Sabbag, a Greenwich High School and Georgetown University graduate, had recently moved to New York City and worked for the investment firm Fiduciary Trust International in the north tower of the World Trade Center.
On Friday, friends and supporters showed up at the Greenwich home of Sabbag's parents, Ralph and Brigette. Family members combed New York City hospitals trying to find any news of Sabbag.
"We are still hopeful of getting our child back," said Ralph Sabbag.
Robert W. Noonan, 36, of Rowayton
A graduate of Avon Old Farms School who attended Connecticut College, Noonan worked as a securities trader in the TradeSpark Division of Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center.
Like many of the other victims, he spoke to his wife, Dana, right after the plane hit the tower he was in. They have a 2-year-old son.
Bennett L. Fisher, 58, Greenwich
Fisher, senior vice president of Fiduciary Trust International, was last seen on the 44th floor of the World Trade Center, apparently helping others get out of the building.
"He was courageous, very caring, extremely responsible and really very steady in a crisis," his wife, Susan Fisher, said. "Whatever he did, he didn't go down the stairs and didn't get out."
She described her husband as being extremely funny. He had a great love of sailing and owned a 38-foot sailboat with his close friend, John Nelson. He was also a graceful skier. "People stopped and stared at him," she said.
His sister, Susie Thorness, said he was the oldest of a family of seven children. "We all looked up to him. He was a well-loved older brother," she said.
He was born and raised in Greenwich and graduated from Yale University. He leaves two children.
He was a survivor of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
Edward Vanacore, 29, formerly of North Haven
Vanacore, who grew up in North Haven and had lived in Jersey City, N.J., for six years, took a job as a stock analyst with Fiduciary Trust International in the World Trade Center six weeks ago.
He had left the south tower where he worked after the jet smashed into the north tower, but returned to his 94th-floor office after security workers gave the go-ahead to return to work. He was last seen in the stairwell of the 78th floor.
Vanacore was the youngest of six children and graduated from North Haven High School and Boston College.
Cesar Murillo, 31, Norwalk
Minutes after the plane slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center several floors below his office, Murillo pulled out his cellular phone and called his wife. He said he was fine and he was headed to the stairwell to find a way out. That was the last time the Murillo family heard from the 31-year-old Colombian native who grew up in Norwalk.
Now Murillo's father, Dairo Murillo, travels from his Norwalk home daily to New York, meets his son's wife, Alyson, and they search the city for news. After growing up in Norwalk and graduating from Catholic schools there, Cesar Murillo went to the University of Vermont. After graduation, he worked in New York's financial industry and landed a job as an international trader for Cantor Fitzgerald, the prestigious financial securities and brokerage firm located on the upper floors of the World Trade Center. He lived in Connecticut and New York until last October, when he married and moved to New York with his wife. "I have another son and daughter," said Dairo Murillo. "But he is the first one and we love him very much and anything anyone knows about him now would help so much."
Michael Tarrou, 38, and Amy King, 29, Stafford Springs
Tarrou and King worked as flight attendants for United Airlines and were on Flight 175 when it crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center.
Tarrou grew up in Wantagh, N.Y., and King grew up in Jamestown, N.Y. Both moved to Stafford Springs where they met as flight attendants.
He is survived by an 11-year-old daughter, Gina, from a previous marriage. Family members said he had a good relationship with his ex-wife, Jill, who recently moved to Florida with their daughter. "He never intentionally hurt anyone," said his mother, Patricia Tarrou of Clearwater, Fla.
Tarrou and King had hoped to move to Florida to be near his family.
"There is no doubt that both Mac and Amy would have done absolutely everything in their power to calm and protect the passengers and crew, and would have given their lives to prevent such a disaster," Tom Lumia, Tarrou's brother-in-law, said. "They both were two of the most compassionate, peaceful, giving and understanding people on the earth, and they will be greatly missed. We will love them forever."
Cheryl Ann Monyak, 43, Greenwich
Monyak's ambition and intelligence carried her to each goal she set, her friends say.
A native of New Hartford, Monyak had returned to the East Coast a few years ago for an executive-level job with Marsh & McLennan, an insurance brokerage firm, after spending a number of years in California as an insurance specialist for Universal Studios.
Her window office on the 96th floor of the World Trade Center's north tower offered a commanding view of New York City.
"We're not giving up hope. Miracles happen every day," said childhood friend Debbie Brydon, who is heading to New York City today with fellow friends Cindy Lamoureaux and Valarie Rourke to search for news about Monyak and spread her picture among emergency workers.
"All we're really looking for is someone who can tell us something, anything," Brydon said. "She wouldn't sit still. She'd do the same for us."
Monyak graduated as valedictorian of the 1975 class of Northwest Regional School District No. 7, and has always been highly intelligent and career-driven, her friends say.
Her parents, Joseph and Doris Monyak, still live in New Hartford and, like thousands of other parents, are awaiting any news.
Father Francis "Frank" Grogan, 76, former chaplain at Holy Cross High School in Waterbury
Gov. John G. Rowland told thousands gathered in prayer Friday at St. Joseph's Cathedral how one special man, who was killed on United Airlines Flight 175, shaped his childhood.
"Father Frank Grogan was my friend, my mentor, my religious teacher at Holy Cross High School" Rowland said. "Father Frank taught me about grace and service to others."
Grogan, a native of Pittsfield, Mass., was headed to California to meet his sister for a vacation. He had been a standby passenger on a Delta flight, said his friend and co-worker Father Tom Tobin. But a friend, who worked at United Airlines, gave Grogan a first-class ticket on Flight 175.
"We weren't worried at first because we thought he went on Delta. We didn't know about the last-minute change, it was a shock. He was just a beautiful human being. He was a wonderful person, who enhanced the priesthood. He made the priesthood better," said Tobin, who worked with Grogan at his last assignment as the superior at the Holy Cross residence for retired priests in North Darmouth, Mass.
Paul Hughes, 38, Stamford
Hughes, an avid New York Yankees fan, worked as a computer consultant at Marsh USA on the 97th floor of 1 World Trade Center.
His wife, Donna, is a teacher at Roxbury Elementary School in Stamford. Hughes was described by a family friend as a hard worker and devoted father to the couple's 10-year-old daughter.
Hughes managed a group of eight to 10 workers. None of the workers from his floor has been heard from, a family friend said.
William J. Meehan, 49, Darien
Meehan is the most visible financial analyst at one of the country's biggest bond firms.
But neighbors on close-knit Oak Park Avenue know him best as a caring husband and father of three, and a fixture at block parties on the cul-de-sac.
On Thursday, his wife, Maureen Meehan, and other family members and close friends waited at home for some word about him.
"We're trying to figure out what to do to help," said neighbor Candace Hanau. "It is very, very difficult. The people who can offer support to the family are there now."
Meehan is the oft-quoted chief market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald, perhaps the hardest hit of the dozens of firms that were located at the World Trade Center. Meehan had worked at the firm's Darien office for about four years, before shifting to the World Trade Center in late August.
Of the 1,000 Cantor employees who worked on the 101st, 103rd, 104th, and 105th floors of the north tower - the first to be hit in Tuesday's terrorist attack - only about 270 have been accounted for.
Shortly after the first hijacked plane slammed into the north tower, staffers in Meehan's office described the horror over the telephone to Cantor colleagues in Los Angeles.
"Somebody's got to help us. ... We can't get out. ... The place is filling with smoke," one person in the New York office said. Then the connection was lost.
Michael Grady Jacobs, 54, Danbury
Jacobs, a corporate tax expert, worked on the 90th floor of the World Trade Center's south tower. His family has kept a vigil at his Danbury home. "We are clinging to hope and waiting to hear," said his former wife, Jane Brady, who said the family welcomes prayers and has been comforted by stories about Jacobs from friends.
"We've heard so many wonderful stories about him," Brady said. "He had a lovely way about him. He was brilliant but had a wonderful light-hearted side."
Jacobs, a graduate of Fairfield Prep and Fairfield University, was just learning to play the bagpipes, she said. He loved Irish music and his Irish heritage and was in the process of restoring a Volkswagen Beetle.
James Greenleaf Jr., 32, Waterford
Greenleaf was working on the 92nd floor of the World Trade Center's north tower for Carr Futures, a monetary exchange company. His family is desperately hoping that he survived. Thursday, he was still among the missing.
Derek Statkevicus, 30, Norwalk
Statkevicus, who remains unaccounted for, worked for the financial firm of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc.'s New York office. He and his wife have a 1-year-old child and are expecting another in January.
Joshua Piver, 23, formerly of Stonington
Piver worked on the 105th floor of one of the World Trade Center towers. A graduate of Stonington High School and the University of Vermont, he landed a job with Tradespark securities and was "on top of the world," said U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd district, whose daughter was friendly with Piver.
"He was a great kid from a small town who was on the path up the ladder," Simmons said
Simmons said his daughter, Jane, was in New York City Thursday with Piver's sister to try to find information about Piver, who remains among the missing.
Paul Curioli, 51, Norwalk
"Did you hear that?" Kathi Curioli asked her son Thursday as he played catch with friends outside their Norwalk home. "Some firefighters were found alive today," she said referring to a report from New York that five firefighters who had been trapped in an SUV since Tuesday had been rescued. The news proved later to have been incorrect. Two firefighters searching the rubble had been trapped for several hours before being rescued. But the report, at the time, gave Curioli hope.
It was just the kind of news she wanted her sons, 12 and 15, to hear while they waited with friends and family for any news about the whereabouts of their father.
"We're hopeful here, very hopeful," she said. "I just want people to pray for him."
Curioli, a vice president with FM Global, a commercial and industrial property insurance company with offices worldwide, was in Manhattan attending a meeting on the 102nd floor of the World Trade Center when the towers were struck by the hijacked jetliners.
A colleague told Kathi Curioli he last saw her husband fleeing down the stairwell on the 78th floor. Eight family members were searching hospitals throughout the city, handing out fliers with her husband's photo, she said.
Ulf Ericson, 79, Greenwich
Ericson, a civil engineer and world traveler, walked away from mountain-climbing accidents. He survived a shipwreck, said his wife and traveling companion, Helen Ericson, 76.
He did not make it out of the south tower of the World Trade Center.
Helen Ericson saw the news footage of the first plane smashing into the north tower. She immediately called her husband at his desk at the Washington Group on the 91st floor of the south tower shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday.
"Ericson," he answered, as he always did.
"What are you still doing there?" Helen Ericson shouted at her husband over the phone line. "Don't you know they just bombed tower 1? Get out."
"Well, now I'm going to go," he told her.
Moments later, the second hijacked airliner hit its target.
Later, Helen Ericson learned her husband had started down the tower with his co-workers, but returned to his desk after an announcement over the public-address system said the south tower was secure.
His co-workers kept heading down, and nearly all of them eventually made it out of the building safely. Helen Ericson said her husband and a woman who had returned to get her purse were the only two people from his office who didn't make it.
"I guess he thought it was safe and went back to work. From his corner office, he couldn't see any of the smoke from where the first plane hit. I'm devastated, but he did have a marvelous life. We lived all over the world. We really had a very full life," Helen Ericson said.
Randolph Scott, 48, Stamford
Scott, who worked for Eurobrokers on the 84th floor of the World Trade Center south tower, called his wife Denise early Tuesday at the school where she teaches, leaving an upbeat message with the gym teacher who answered the phone.
"He told another teacher, 'Tell Denise I'm OK; tell her that a 747 hit the trade center, but that I'm OK,'" Denise Scott said Thursday night from her home, where she was awaiting word. He remained missing with about 60 of his co-workers.
"I thought he was safe, that's the thing. I didn't know until later that his building had been hit. I thought he was safe," she repeated tearfully.
Several of Randolph Scott's relatives fanned out around New York City on Wednesday and Thursday with his picture, anxiously showing it to emergency workers and television crews.
Kevin McCarthy, 42, Fairfield
A bond trader, McCarthy worked on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center for Cantor Fitzgerald; 70 percent of the company's 1,000-member staff is reported missing. The father of an 11-year-old girl and 5-year-old twins, McCarthy called his wife, Deborah, about 8:50 a.m. and told her that there had been an accident, his sister, Kathy Sullivan, said. He was running when he called, she said, though she's not sure if he was running up to the roof, as others had been told to do.
McCarthy's younger brother, Charlie, was working in the World Trade Center in 1993 when the first terrorist attack occurred, Sullivan said. He survived.
The third of six children, Kevin McCarthy grew up in Reading, Mass., and attended Newman Prep. Sullivan said her brother was a "wonderful family man" with a great sense of humor.
"He had a great smile," she added later, choking up. "He was the most handsome man on Earth."
Peter Fry, 36, Wilton
There's hope etched on Meredith Fry's fatigued face as she awaits word on her 36-year-old husband, Peter.
She's told her two daughters, aged 3 and 6, that their dad wants to be with them, but there's been an accident in New York City and he's trying to help others.
Peter Fry, who worked on the 82nd floor of 2 World Trade Center as a vice president of international money markets for Euro Brokers, spoke with his brothers-in-law after the first plane struck the other tower. He appeared calm while asking that his wife be told he was OK.
Peter Fry hasn't been seen or heard from since, but some co-workers who sat next to him made it out safely and are home with their loved ones. That fuels Meredith Fry's faith. "We're coping with it hour to hour. There's a lot of hope and prayers that he's laying in a hospital bed somewhere as a John Doe, unidentified," Meredith Fry said.
Peter Fry grew up in Bronxville, N.Y., and attended boarding school in New Hampshire and Curry College in Boston. The Fry family asks that anyone who might have seen Peter Fry during his escape or at a hospital call 203-227-3377
Bruce Eagleson, 53, Middlefield
The former general manager of Westfield Shoppingtown Meriden was helping fellow employees evacuate from the 17th floor of the south tower when he went back to his office to get two-way radios so workers could stay in touch.
That was the last time friends and fellow employees said they saw Bruce Eagleson, 53.
"That sounds just like Bruce, thinking of other people," said William J. Eagleson, a Cheshire resident and Bruce's older brother.
Family members are now holding out hope that Eagleson continued down a stairwell to get out of the building but somehow got trapped in the lower floors or basement.
"There appeared to be plenty of time for him to get the radios and still get down to the bottom of the building," William Eagleson said. "We understand that because of all the debris on the lower floors, emergency crews were redirecting people out exits other than the ones they would normally use in that stairwell. Those exits were further and deeper into the building, which for us offers a glimmer of hope."
The family is hoping that Eagleson may still be alive and trapped in a pocket of debris amid the mounds of rubble.
Eagleson's oldest son, Kyle, was able to speak to his father after the first plane hit the north tower. Kyle urged his father to leave his office. Eagleson, a father of three and East Coast vice president of management for the Westfield Corp. Inc., reportedly told his son not to worry and that he was busy helping people get out of the building. When his son pushed him to get himself out, Eagleson paused for a moment, and then agreed he would.
"Obviously, it's a very difficult situation with so many unknowns," William Eagleson said. "But there still exists a lot of hope."
The Los Angeles-based Westfield Corp. says Eagleson is one of 11 employees who worked in the south tower. All the others have been accounted for. The company has hired a private security firm to help look for Eagleson and distribute his photo to area hospitals and media.
"The entire family is very grateful for what the management of Westfield has done and continues to do for us," William Eagleson said.
Donald F. Greene, 52, Greenwich:
Greene had boarded a Boeing 757 in Newark, N.J., anxious to meet three of his brothers in Lake Tahoe for a biking trip.
But the pilot and business manager for Safe Flight Instrument Corp. in White Plains, N.Y., never made it. United Airlines Flight 93 was hijacked and crashed in southwest Pennsylvania, killing all those on board.
Greene, who grew up in New York and lived in Greenwich for 14 years, had two children, ages 10 and 6. He wasn't able to say goodbye to his wife, Claudette, or his two children, his sister Amy Gerbe, of Sudbury, Mass., said Wednesday.
But the family suspects that Greene was the passenger who reportedly tried to call an emergency operator from a locked bathroom aboard the flight, which authorities say a group of passengers attempted to take back from the hijackers. "He was a pilot. He would have done what he could," she said. "We are only fortunate because we know where he is. Our hearts go out to the other families," Gerbe said.
Candace Lee Williams, 20, Danbury:
Williams, a Danbury native and junior at Northeastern University, boarded American Airlines Flight 11 in Boston for a five-day trip with her best friend and college roommate.
Her uncle, Wayne Skelly, said the family learned that the aircraft slammed into the World Trade Center (where Williams had interned for Merrill Lynch) when his mother, Candace's grandmother, heard the news on the radio. The airline never called, but the family's fears were confirmed Tuesday night when the FBI called the family to Boston for a meeting.
Williams was remembered in Danbury as a top graduate at Immaculate High School who volunteered with the Special Olympics, played basketball and ran cross-country.
"We missed her as soon as she graduated," her former Principal Joseph Gerics said. "Now we're going to miss her even more."
Margaret Orloske, 50, Windsor
Orloske, 50, a manager for J&H Marsh & McLennan, an insurance brokerage firm that occupied the 93rd through 100th floors of the 110-story Tower One of the World Trade Center, divided her week between New York and her home in Windsor.
Her husband, Duane, has been awaiting word on his wife of 26 years since Tuesday, and hope is fading. The tower was the site of the first of two collisions by hijacked airliners into the New York landmark.
"I'm praying to God she is alive. There is not much more I can do," said Orloske, who works as Student Center director at Central Connecticut State University.
"I talked to her before she left for work Tuesday morning," he said. "I think she tried to call me on my cellphone at about the time the plane hit, but I was in a meeting and didn't realize she had called until after I heard about the crash. She didn't leave a message."
Since then, the phone has become the center of Orloske's life.
"We spent Tuesday calling all the hospitals hoping we might find her there," he said. "Everything is so chaotic at the hospitals, though. We didn't find out anything. They don't seem to have a good system set up yet for identifying people.
"But there are so many people lost," he continued, his voice trailing off. "They just took her name and my phone number and said they would be in touch if she shows up as a patient."
Dianne Snyder, 42, formerly of Clinton
Catherine Levenduski remembers former Clinton neighbor Dianne Bullis Snyder for all the times she helped out in Levenduski's child's school and for throwing her a baby shower to celebrate the birth of her third child.
"She was a very good neighbor," said Levenduski.
The 42-year-old flight attendant was aboard American Airlines Flight 11 that crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers.
A resident of Westport, Mass., she was raised in Madison and lived for years in Clinton with her husband John and two children before they moved only a few years ago.
Ruth McCourt, 45, and daughter Juliana Valentine McCourt, 4, New London
McCourt and her daughter were aboard United Airlines Flight 175 en route from Boston to Los Angeles which collided with the World Trade Center where her brother, Ronald Clifford, of New Jersey, works.
Clifford survived and tried to track down news of his sister by calling her best friend's husband in Newton, Mass. The friend, Paige Farley Hackel, was also traveling to Los Angeles, but had been on another plane - the American Airlines jet that slammed into the center's other tower.
Friends and family gathered at McCourt's house and tried to absorb the loss of the woman described as a "gorgeous Irish lass," her daughter, described by a family friend as "an angel without wings," and Hackel, a lifelong friend who was a fixture in the life of McCourt and her extended family.
McCourt's younger brother Spencer Scott, of Boston, said his niece was a feminine little girl who cared so much about other people that she would question strangers who seemed sad about what was bothering them. She loved to visit the Disney website to play games, took riding lessons and had her favorite dresses.
McCourt, wife of David McCourt, owner of Abco Wire & Metal Products, formerly owned the Clifford Classique Day Spa in Newton, Mass. She loved gardening, said friend Patty Freedman, and was very spiritual.
Amy Toyen, 24, formerly of Avon
Toyen, daughter of Avon school board member Martin Toyen, was on a job interview at the World Trade Center Tuesday morning; she phoned her fiance just before the blast.
"She was a great kid, very bright," said Avon Town Manager Phil Schenck, who said Amy used to work summers in the tax collector's office at town hall.
James Hobin, 47, Marlborough
The last time Sheila Hobin spoke with her husband Jim was around 8 a.m. Tuesday.
While Jim didn't say specifically that he was in the World Trade Center, Sheila knew from her caller ID that he had made it to his office on the 99th floor of Tower One.
Since then, Sheila, his wife of 25 years, and their children, Sean, 21, and Derrick, 17, have been hoping for the best.
Hobin, a vice president at Marsh & McClennan, spent most of his time in his office at 1 State Street in Hartford. But once a week, he visited the office his company keeps in the World Trade Center.
"We're holding out hope," said Betsy Smith, a neighbor and close family friend. "We feel that until we know, there's always hope."
The family's Marlborough home was filled Tuesday evening with voices of friends and the noise of a television news crew. The Hobins were hoping some publicity might help in the search for Jim, who might not have been carrying identification on Tuesday.
"He never kept his wallet in his pocket," said Smith. "Only in his briefcase."
The family hasn't had much encouragement as the events have unfolded.
"They have not been watching the TV," Smith said. "Not today."
On Saturday, the entire Hobin family had dinner with Jim Hobin's mother, who still lives in the New London house where Jim grew up, and his sister Donna, visiting from California.
Hobin, a 21-year resident of Marlborough, served for a time as the president of the town's Youth Athletic League.
Jonathan J. Uman, 33, Westport
Julie Uman said she regularly worried about her husband working on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center.
"But," she says, almost laughing, "he would smile and say, 'But Julie, look at the wonderful view.'"
The young father of two, director of mergers and acquisitions for eSpeed, a division of Cantor Fitzgerald, was on the 105th floor when a hijacked jetliner hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
"It has been the worst 10 days of my life," acknowledged his wife, who said she had e-mailed him just minutes before the airliner hit to say, "I love you."
"We had just talked about what we would do if one or the other died and we agreed we should go on, take good care of the children and have a party to celebrate the good things about the other."
On Wednesday, she did just that. Julie Uman hosted a party for 800 people, many of whom then attended a memorial service the next day for her husband.
On Saturday, Julie Uman, determined to move forward as the two had discussed, led the first board of directors meeting of the Jonathan J. Uman Foundation.
"I'm not sure what yet, but whatever we raise will be used in some way for those who were touched by this tragedy," she said firmly. "I will not stop my life or my children's lives and let this get us down," she added. "He was a great guy at a great time in his life," she said. "I was lucky to have had him as a husband."
Her voice dropped a bit as she explained that she has done her best to explain what has happened to her children. "I will have so many good stories to tell them about him when they get older," Uman said.
In an attempt to ease the immediate pain, the three looked out the window one recent night and chose a star they call "Daddy's Star."
"Every night we look out the window at that star," Julie Uman says quietly. "And we say, `Goodnight, Daddy.'"
Bradley Fetchet, 24, New Canaan
Each night since their son was taken from them, Mary and Frank Fetchet place a sign outside their home.
It asks for quiet time, for their days are busy.
Family members from the Midwest and close friends come in waves. There are phone calls, including one from Gov. John G. Rowland. There are injured lists to scour. And there are the prayers for Bradley Fetchet.
Fetchet graduated from Bucknell University in 1999 with a degree in economics. In no time, he was working as a trader for Keefe, Bruyette and Woods on the 89th floor of the World Trade Center's south tower.
At about 9 a.m. on Sept. 11, after the first hijacked airliner had exploded into the north tower, Fetchet called his father, an IBM executive, and told him he was okay. He left reassuring voice-mail messages for his mother and girlfriend, Brooke Stengle.
That is the last the family heard from him, said close family friend Tish Adair, whose sons, Bill and Mike, grew up with Brad.
Last Sunday, his parents and two brothers, Wes, 21, a sophomore at Bucknell, and Chris, 13, an eighth-grader at Saxe Middle School, went to the Armory in Manhattan. Mary and Frank Fetchet filled out a missing-person report and gave DNA samples.
"They are a deeply spiritual couple and said they found the Armory experience amazing," said Adair. "Therapists were there, giving their time. A young woman volunteer was leading them from station to station. She turned to Mary and said, 'Mrs. Fetchet, I knew Brad.'"
Fetchet was an accomplished athlete, starring in hockey and lacrosse at New Canaan High School. He played varsity lacrosse at Bucknell. Wes, a member of Bucknell's Patriot League champion lacrosse team this past season, has followed in his older brother's footsteps.
Alexander Braginsky, 38, Stamford
The Russian immigrant adored this country, his job at Reuters, and his fiancee, Kelly Kazes.
Braginsky, manager of the company's foreign exchange products, usually worked at the Times Square offices. But when a ticket for a Reuters sales meeting at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 unexpectedly became available, Braginsky jumped at the chance of going.
By 8:30 that morning, he was eating breakfast at the Windows on the World restaurant atop the north tower, Kazes told The Stamford Advocate.
Eighteen minutes later, the first hijacked airliner exploded into the building.
Reuters said six of its employees, including Braginsky, are missing in the collapse.
His mother, Nelly Braginsky, has not let go.
"We are still waiting for him," she said. "He is strong, healthy. He has to survive. We watch to see them pull out somebody, our Alex, alive."
Robert Higley, 29, New Fairfield.
He would have been proud of her mettle.
Vycki Higley, eight months pregnant with their second child, sat on a folding chair in the Armory in Manhattan. There were about 20 rows of these chairs, all filled. This was Thursday, two days after the attack.
The hijacked airliner that had struck the south tower of the World Trade Center had hit roughly between the 86th and 94th floors and exploded into a fireball.
Robert Higley worked on the 92nd floor. He'd started the job at Aon Risk Management Services three months earlier.
Vycki Higley shifted uneasily in her seat at the Armory.
Family members were sitting and waiting to be escorted downstairs, in groups of 10, to listen to volunteers reading off the names of the injured at New York City and New Jersey hospitals.
"We had numbers. They started at 0001. I had 1,500 and something."
She had just finished filling out a 12-page form -- the official missing-person report.
The form did not ask for a description of her husband's love for their 4-year-old daughter, Amanda, or their new house, or his passion for the New York Yankees, or how proud the family was of his recent promotion.
"You had to list anything that could be used as identification, any broken noses, body piercings, tattoos, scars that he may have had," Vycki Higley said.
After two hours, she couldn't sit any longer.
"I used my pregnancy. I found a bathroom. I found a social worker in the bathroom. She took me to a police detective. He let me go see the lists," said the 30-year-old bank teller.
There was no word of Robert Higley. She trooped back to New Fairfield with a single hope -- that her husband's death was painless.
George E. Spencer III, 50, Norwalk
Nicknamed Twig, the father of two was a graduate of Trinity College in Hartford.
Spencer worked for Euro Brokers on the 84th floor of the World Trade Center's south tower -- struck by the second of two hijacked airliners on Sept. 11. He'd turned 50 on Sept. 5.
Spencer was an outdoorsman who loved biking, climbing and sailing, his family said.
He and his wife, Cathy, have two children, Ted, 22, and Lisa, 20, who live in Salt Lake City.
Bryan C. Bennett, 25, New York (formerly of Greenwich)
In describing her son, Ondina Bennett uses these words: "Gentle, strong, responsible, loving, selfless. He had such tremendous dignity for such a young man." And he knew how to enjoy life.
Bryan Bennett started at Cantor Fitzgerald's eSpeed division in customer support last year, where he worked on the 104th floor of the north tower. He lived in Manhattan, wanting to remain close to his family, including his mother and sister, Lili O'Malley, who live in Greenwich. He has another sister, Lourdes O'Connor, who lives in Houston.
Since Tuesday, His tight-knit group of friends, which reach back to his days growing up in Glen Ridge, N.J., have been searching for him in New York City. Those friends have continued to be a strong support for the family.
"The quality of young men who have been surrounding us is a tribute to Bryan, because you are who your friends are," said his mother said. "And it's a tribute to them." A 10 a.m. memorial service is set for Saturday, Sept. 22, at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Riverside.
Sean Rooney, 50, Stamford
After the first plane hit the north tower, Rooney called his wife, Beverly Eckert, who was at work in Stamford. He left a message that he was OK in his office at Aon Risk Services, located in the south tower, and planned to be there for a while, since they had secured the building.
Then the second plane hit the south tower. Eckert went to the couple's Stamford home, where Rooney soon called. He told his wife that he was trapped on the 105th floor of the burning building. He had made several attempts to escape -- first trying to run down the stairs, but he was beaten back around the 76th floor by the heat and smoke. Then he tried to access the observation deck just above his office, but he couldn't because the door was locked.
Rooney was having difficulty breathing. The couple began talking about their life together and their love for each other.
"I heard him say, 'I love you,' then I heard a terrible explosion and a roaring sound," Eckert told The Stamford Advocate. "It sounded like Niagara Falls. I knew without seeing that he was gone."
The couple was together for 34 years, meeting in high school in their native Buffalo. Rooney, a vice president at Aon, enjoyed an array of sports including golf, tennis and inline skating. He was a gourmet cook and helped restore the couple's Stamford home -- even constructing the kitchen table. His acerbic wit was memorable, Eckert said.
"There's no way I can summarize my feelings for Sean in a story or a thought," Eckert said Wednesday. "There's really only one story,; it's a love story and it lasted 34 years."
Thomas Galvin, 32, New York City, (formerly of Greenwich)
Galvin worked at Cantor Fitzgerald since 1994, where he was a corporate bond broker and senior vice president. The 1986 graduate of Greenwich High School was captain of the high school varsity golf team and named to All-State and All-County Scholastic golf teams in his senior year. He was a competitive amateur golfer and a member of the Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y. He graduated from Georgetown University, in 1990 where he was captain of the varsity golf team. He volunteered for a variety of charitable causes. He is survived by his parents, John M. and Diverra Galvin, who live in Greenwich; two sisters, Lynn Galvin of Manhattan and Kathy Callahan of Greenwich, and a brother, John Galvin Jr., of New Canaan. A memorial Mass is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Greenwich.
Bradley Vadas, 37, Westport
Donald Vadas of Norwalk was at a neighbor's home when the first cellphone call came from his son, Bradley.
The stockbroker who worked on the 89th floor of the south tower described a surreal scene: A plane had smashed into the north tower.
"Don't worry, I'm safe. It's not my building. But it's bizarre, Dad, people are jumping out of the windows," Donald Vadas recalled his son saying.
Donald Vadas went into his house and flicked on CNN.
"I saw the second plane hit and I knew exactly what was going on. My son is on the 89th floor, and the plane looked like it hit at about the 60th or so. At 9:14, my son called again.
"He said, 'Dad, this is probably going to be our last conversation. I just want to tell you how much you mean to me, what a great dad you are. I love you.'
"Then we talked a little about love, and he said, `Dad, I gotta go. There's smoke in here now.'
"He was crying; he was scared. I had to get outside after that. I couldn't control myself."
Later, Donald Vadas learned his son also had left a short voice-mail message for girlfriend, Kris McFerren. The two had been going together for nine years and planned to marry.
"He told her, 'Take care of my dad; the two of you, love each other,'" Donald Vadas said.
Vadas grew up in Weston, where his mother, Connie Taylor, still lives. He was a 1986 Boston College graduate and joined the brokerage firm Keefe, Bruyette and Woods, working his way up to a senior vice president.
Vadas lived part-time in a waterfront home in Westport and part-time in New York City. He loved to fish, ride jet skis and play weekend baseball at Compo Beach in Westport.
Last weekend, his father, sister, Melissa Prevey, of Rhode Island, and brother, Christopher Vadas, a Newtown police officer, held a remembrance at his Westport home.
"He achieved a lot in his 37 years - and no one gave him anything. He ate a lot of spaghetti in college," Donald Vadas said. "What a great son he was."
Joseph Coppo, 47, New Canaan
Coppo joined Cantor Fitzgerald less than a year ago, after the giant bond firm bought out a small, successful company co-owned by Coppo that traded in municipal bonds.
Coppo moved into Cantor's offices on the 104th floor of 1 World Trade Center, the north tower.
On the morning of Sept. 11, the father of four was on the phone with a close friend from California. At 8:48, he abruptly cut into the conversation.
"He said, `A plane just hit the building. I've got to get out of here,'" Coppo's son, Matthew, 18, recounted.
That is all the family knows.
Matt's brother, Joseph, 19, went to Cantor Fitzgerald's information center at a hotel in lower Manhattan, but could learn nothing about his father.
Coppo was the captain of the Manhattan College baseball team in the early 1970s, and imparted his love of sports to his children. He coached youth baseball and basketball in New Canaan.
"For him, everything centered on us," said Matt, a senior at St. Luke's in New Canaan.
"He taught us a lot of things through sports. He never forced us, but if we didn't go out for something, he'd ask why. He used sports as a base point."
Coppo's wife, Patricia, is a homemaker, and his daughter, Kathleen, 22, teaches school in Rye, N.Y. Joseph is a sophomore at Boston College, and the youngest, John, 13, is an eighth-grader at St. Luke's.
Garry Lozier, 47, Darien
Lozier worked on the 104th floor of 2 World Trade Center, the south tower, at Sandler O'Neill & Partners, an investment banking firm. He had been with the company for about 10 years. His wife described him as a great guy and great father to their three children - two girls and a boy .
Christopher Wodenshek, 35, recently of Stamford
To shorten the commute to the World Trade Center, Wodenshek had recently moved from Stamford to New Jersey along with his wife, Anne, and their five children.
"He was a great father," said sister-in-law Katie Gerne. "He was very dedicated to his job and very dedicated to his wife and kids. ... He always had a smile on his face. He really held the family together."
Wodenshek had worked as an executive at Cantor Fitzgerald for nearly two years. Since last week, the family has rallied around Anne Wodenshek and the couple's children - Sarah, 9; Haley, 8; Mollie, 6; William, 4; and Zachary, 2. Wodenshek was also an avid runner.
Judith Florence Hofmiller, 53, Brookfield
Today, Robert Winkis heads to Pier 94 in lower Manhattan to formally declare his wife missing. He will give authorities some samples of her DNA.
"I have her water bottle, her hairbrush, her toothbrush,'' Winkis said Wednesday.
Family members had been hoping to hear some shred of news about Hofmiller, a software tester who worked as a consultant for JH Marsh & McLennan on the 97th floor of the north tower.
"I am preparing to try to hold my feet to the ground," Winkis said of the trip to New York City. "When you see something in person, it is shocking, no matter how much you've been inundated with TV images."
Those images flash in his mind. After seeing footage of the first hijacked airline smash into the north tower, he rushed to call Hofmiller. He never reached her.
He said it appears her office was located above where the plane's left wing slashed through the building.
A short time ago, the bosses at JH Marsh had asked her to join the firm, and she was in the process of converting from a consultant to a full-time employee, Winkis said.
"She was a warm, wonderful, loving person, with a unique gift to make people around her feel comfortable and wanted,'' Winkis said.
Michael G. McGinty, 42, of Foxboro, Mass., formerly of Plainville
McGinty was a senior vice president at the Power Group at Marsh Inc. in Boston. But two days a week he worked out of the company's offices in the World Trade Center. He would fly to New York City on Monday and return home Tuesday night, said his wife, Cynthia McGinty, who last spoke with her husband at dinnertime Monday, Sept. 10.
Married for 10 years, the couple once lived in Plainville, Conn. Michael McGinty graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1981 and served as a nuclear engineer in the U.S. Navy until 1989 when he was honorably discharged. He had earned the rank of lieutenant commander. Cynthia McGinty described her husband as a man with a quick sense of humor who was also an active member of the Bethany Congregational Church in Foxboro. They have two sons, Daniel, 8, and David, 7.
"His kids were the most important thing in the world to him. He was such a good dad," said his wife. "He was probably the most honest person you'd ever meet."
James D. Halvorson, 56, Greenwich
As the insurance broker on many large overseas construction projects, Halvorson traveled extensively. He'd spend days on end in rural settings in Russia, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and other areas, mingling with the villagers.
"He was always fine with it," said his son, Douglas, 29. "He didn't have to have his guard up."
Doug Halvorson said his father had remarked on occasion how secure he felt working in J.H. Marsh & McLennan's offices on the 90th to 100th floors of the World Trade Center's south tower.
"It used to take me 20 minutes to get up to see him, because of the security," said Douglas Halvorson, who works at Marsh's midtown Manhattan office. Visitors to the trade center must produce photo identification upon entering.
Halvorson's office on the 99th floor "was pretty much right at the point of impact of the first plane," his son said. "No one heard anything from them after the crash.
"We are hoping it was painless," he said.
Halvorson worked for Marsh for 30 years He was a skier and an accomplished runner, having completed the New York City Marathon in 1991. He and his wife, Maureen, were married for 31 years.
Scott T. Coleman, 31, and Keith Coleman, 34, both formerly of Westport
Neither Jean nor Neil Coleman can bear to talk about their two sons, who were both working on one of the top floors of the trade center's north tower when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the building last Tuesday.
"They were close as children and continued to be close," said their mother, Jean Coleman, a Westport resident who has been in New York waiting word about her two sons.
Keith, resident of New Jersey, and his younger brother, a New York resident, both worked for the financial securities firm Cantor Fitzgerald. They graduated from Staples High School in Westport. Relatives said there were no calls from either brother the day of the attack, and there has been no word from either since.
Edward Maloney, 32, Darien
Maloney and his wife, Brinley, have a 14-month-old daughter and are expecting their second child in December.
A few months ago, the young family moved to a home on Five Mile Road. Maloney commuted to the World Trade Center, where he worked as a bond trader for Cantor Fitzgerald.
Only about one-third of the nearly 1,000 Cantor Fitzgerald employees who worked in the north tower -- struck by the first of two hijacked airliners -- have been accounted for.
Kathleen A. McGarry Noack, 30, Southbury
Neighbors shudder when they recount the story of how newlywed Katie McGarry Noack, and her husband, Brad Noack, found themselves inside the World Trade Center as the first hijacked airliner smashed into the north tower.
"We only know what we have learned from each other or what we have read," said one Southbury resident who lives on the same street as the McGarry family, but asked not to be identified. "It is a tragedy for everyone who was killed in this tragedy but for two young people, just starting their lives out together ... how will that young man ever get over losing his bride?"
Brad Noack, a computer professional from Sydney, Australia, was on the 39th floor of the tower when the plane hit. His wife, Kathleen, better known as Katie, a financial consultant, was 70 floors above meeting with a client.
Brad Noack, along with colleagues from Lehman Brothers, an investment banking and brokerage house, rushed to leave the building. He tried to call his wife on her cellphone but no one answered. He then paged his family in Sydney to let them know he was OK but he could not determine if his wife had also made it to safety.
He is still awaiting word.
Noack's parents said their son and Katie were married in April, three years after the two met at a Thanksgiving party in the United States. "Our daughter-in-law," Jeannette Noack said in published reports, "we think she is gone. ... It's a nightmare."
Geoffrey Cloud, 36, Stamford
As was often the case, Cloud's 7-year-old son, Geoffrey, ate dinner this past weekend at the home of his best friend and baseball buddy, Evan Brace, 7.
The Brace and Cloud families, neighbors on Westover Avenue, had grown close over the years. Their common bond was their children.
The elder Geoffrey Cloud worked 12-hour days or longer as a lawyer for the financial securities firm Cantor Fitzgerald at the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. Most weekends, all he yearned to do was hang out with Geoffrey, daughter Jacqueline, 5, and his wife, Mio.
But the terror attacks took him from his family.
Susan Brace is still smarting from young Geoffrey's parting words after their weekend meal.
"I have to go," the boy said. "Tomorrow we have to look for a new dad."
Cloud, who worked on the 104th floor, and nearly 1,000 other Cantor employees were trapped after the first hijacked plane smashed into the north tower at 8:48 a.m. on Sept. 11.
"He was such a gentle, wonderful man," Brace said. "He'd drop over to the yard and have a beer with my husband, Steven, on the weekends. They'd toss a ball with the kids. He worked such long hours that whenever he had free time, he'd spend it at home."
Now there is a void on Westover Avenue.
Susan Brace said the neighbors have rallied around Mio Cloud, who also works as an attorney.
She was in the process of buying a new house but now, with her life changed forever by terrorists, her friends on Westover are trying to help her get her deposit back.
"Then there's the matter of the past-due bills, which I've been handling," said Susan Brace. "Everyone, Nissan for the car and all the rest, have been very understanding. It is just such a tremendous loss."
Stacey Sanders, 25, formerly of Darien
"This won't help," John Sanders says emotionally when asked about his daughter, still missing after the attack on the World Trade Center. He answers the phone before it has even finished ringing once, and when he says "hello" there is a hesitant kind of hope. When he realizes it is a call that brings no news of his daughter, he is once again overcome by his grief. Sanders would confirm only that Stacey was living in New York City, after moving from the family's home in Darien.
"You have to understand how difficult this is," he says almost apologetically. "I just can't talk."
Lindsay Morehouse, 24, Branford and New York City
Morehouse was on a roll. Freshly graduated from Williams College, where she was co-captain of the tennis team, she had landed a job as an equities research assistant at an investment firm in the World Trade Center.
And on Sept. 6, she'd been accepted into the Big Brother/Big Sister program as a volunteer mentor.
On the application form, she was asked how many hours a week she worked, and if she'd really be able to spend quality time with a disadvantaged child.
"I work 55 to 60 hours a week, but I will make the time," she wrote.
"That's the kind of kid Lindsay was," said her stepfather, Dale Maycen of Branford. "She had a big heart."
Morehouse worked at Keese, Bruyette & Woods on the 89th floor of the north tower. Moments after the second hijacked airliner smashed into the south tower, Morehouse called her parents.
"Lindsay was hysterically crying. It was brutal," Maycen said. She did not make it out of the building.
Morehouse had spent nearly every summer of her life at her mother's family home in Branford's Pine Orchard section. She had recently moved into an apartment in Manhattan.
James Patrick, 30, Norwalk
For their own good, and the good of his soon-to-be-born son, Patrick's family has decided the time has come to deal with the tragic probability that he is never coming home.
"Both families made the decision over the weekend to begin scheduling a memorial Mass," said Patrick's mother-in-law, Jacqueline Buckmiller. "It has been a roller coaster ride for all of us since this happened, especially my daughter. At some point, you have to go on."
Patrick, a bond broker with Cantor Fitzgerald on the upper floors of 1 World Trade Center, was on the phone with a client when the hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 hit the building. Buckmiller said the client, who was not identified, called the family to relay Patrick's final phone conversation.
"He apparently simply interrupted the client and said he had to leave because the building was being evacuated because a plane had hit," Buckmiller said.
Patrick is the son-in-law of former Naugatuck Mayor Terry Buckmiller. Patrick's wife, Tera Lynn, a tutor at a middle school in Naugatuck, is expecting their first child, a boy, in four weeks.
"Oh he was so excited about this baby," Jacqueline Buckmiller said in between tears as she waited Monday for her daughter to return from a doctor's visit. "He and Tera Lynn had just celebrated their first anniversary last weekend. They had gone to Vermont to celebrate. How quickly life can change."
David H. Winton, 29, and Jeffrey Bittner, 27, formerly of Wethersfield
Winton and Bittner were linked from childhood. They grew up in the same Wethersfield neighborhood, and their mothers were best friends. When Bittner finished college and was seeking a job, it was Winton, an analyst for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, who helped his buddy land a job as a research analyst with him at the company's World Trade Center office.
"David graduated in 1990 from Wethersfield High School and Jeff and I graduated two years later from Kingswood-Oxford," said Pam Bittner, Jeffrey's twin sister. "We don't know if they were together when the plane hit. We do know my brother was on the 82nd floor in Tower Two with a group of people after the attack on Tower One. Apparently someone in the group called their wife to tell her what was going on. They said they were fine and that their tower was OK," Pam Bittner said. "Jeff apparently sounded fine but I know he wanted to get out of there."
At the Bittner home in Wethersfield, Pam, who lives in Boston, has been keeping a vigil near the phone while her older brother, Michael, Jeff's girlfriend, and other relatives and friends have hunkered down in New York in an attempt to find out anything they can about Jeff's whereabouts.
"He's my best friend; I can see him," said Pam Bittner, trying not to cry. "I'm not leaving this house," she said.
"I still have a lot of hope. All you have is hope and faith in a situation like this. Without it you are left only with despair," she said. "My brother was strong and I know he would want us to deal with this," she said softly. "If anybody can make it through this it is him," Pam Bittner said, her voice trembling. "I close my eyes and I can see him as clear as day. I can feel the phone call announcing. ... 'We found him!'"
John Fiorito, 40, Stamford
Fatherhood defined Fiorito.
"His greatest passion away from work was our son, John, who is 6," said his wife, Karen Fiorito.
Fiorito was a broker with Cantor Fitzgerald. He was at work on the 104th floor of the trade center's north tower. "We spoke at 8:30 a.m. that morning. It was the last I've heard from him," Karen Fiorito said.
Fiorito's past year had been an especially significant one because John appeared to be responding successfully to a bone marrow transplant he underwent a year ago after being diagnosed with leukemia.
"It was such a good year," his sister-in-law, Dana Piazza, said Monday. "After the transplant, they all went to Disney World, and then to the beach for two weeks. At least he had some good memories."
Ron Gilligan, 43, Norwalk
Gilligan, originally from Liverpool, England, worked for Cantor Fitzgerald and was believed to have been behind his desk on the 103rd floor of the north tower when the first terrorist attack occurred.
He has not been seen since. He is one of hundreds of British citizens believed to have been killed.
Gilligan, who came to America with his family and settled in Norwalk in 1992, last talked to his wife, Liz, when he left for work Tuesday morning, his niece, Debi Portman, said from Liverpool.
Gilligan is the father of three: Ashley, 16, Ainsley, 8, and Dherran, 6.
"He worshiped his wife and children," Portman said. "They loved going down to the beach, going to museums or educational things. Ron was very interested in giving his kids a good education in life so they could be successful."
Gilligan's brother, Les, said phone calls to New York have provided no information.
"We've rung the hospitals, and he isn't there. We have rung Cantor Fitzgerald, and, so far, he isn't one of the survivors," Les Gilligan told British television station ITN.
"What can you do except hope and pray that he is, dear God, still alive. But you look at the pictures and you watch the television and you just think, 'I hope that as the plane when through the building, Ronnie went instantly. I hope he did not suffer.'"
But Portman said the family has not given up hope.
"My aunt has not given up, and she has asked us to do the same," she said.
Joseph H. Heller, 37, Ridgefield
Heller worked for Carr Futures in the World Trade Center and is listed on the company's website as one of 67 missing employees. He worked on the 92nd floor.
In July, Heller was a company delegate to the Managed Funds Association Forum in New York.
The forum, according to its website, was "designed to attract the industry's most prominent professionals."
Heller and his wife, Mary, are members of St. Mary's Church in Ridgefield.
"He was a wonderful man," Peter Yanity, a selectman and dentist who had Heller as a patient, told the Danbury News-Times.
"It's heartbreaking."
Christopher William White Murphy, 35, Norwalk
Murphy, a New Haven-born attorney, began work in April with the financial firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, located on the 88th and 89th floors of the World Trade Center.
His family said he died in the attack.
Murphy grew up in Woodbridge, and graduated in 1988 from Yale University, where he was captain of the sailing team and competed in national sailing regattas. After leaving Yale, Murphy raced a 40-foot sailboat across the Atlantic Ocean, from the Azores to the Caribbean.
He met his wife, Catherine White, while both worked as sailing instructors in the Caribbean. The couple has two daughters.
In 1992, he received a doctor of law degree from Emory University, and joined the firm Day, Berry & Howard's Stamford office.
Michael Pelletier, 36, Greenwich
Pelletier was working on the 105th floor in the north tower when it was hit. He called his wife, Sophie, and calmly told her he was trapped in the building and that he loved her.
He is missing.
The Canadian-born commodities broker worked for TradeSpark, a division of the trading firm Cantor Fitzgerald.
The family moved from Manhattan to Greenwich less than a year ago and has a 2-year-old daughter and a 3-month-old son.
"His whole life was his family," Sophie Pelletier said. "He was the best father. I feel like my heart and soul have been taken away."
In the phone call to his wife moments after the attack, Pelletier said he was trying to help others. His neighbor and college friend Randy Christ called him as he watched events unfold on television.
Pelletier told Christ he wanted to get "everyone out of here," and didn't seem overly concerned about himself.
"I was telling him things I was seeing on TV, which he was relaying to other people in the room," Christ told the Greenwich Time.
Sophie Pelletier said her husband often regretted that his commute prevented him from seeing his daughter when she woke up and went to sleep.
"We're still holding out hope for a miracle," she said.
James M. Roux, 43, formerly of New London
Roux, a lawyer who was born in New London, was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the trade center's south tower. He was on the way to Thailand.
Roux practiced law in Hartford and Portland, Maine, and was a litigator who helped recently with large settlements for several families affected by asbestos exposure and lead poisoning.
He served three years in the Army and was a decorated paratrooper.
Family members described Roux as a "devoted father, avid mountain climber, fly fisherman and musician."
He is survived by two sons, his mother and stepfather, four sisters and a brother.
Roux was a graduate of Bowdoin College and the University of Maine Law School. His cousin, state Sen. Susan Longley of Maine, told the Portland Press Herald that the family was not ready to talk about Roux.
Roux was a partner in the Portland law firm Roux & Ghimire, a general trial practice and international law firm.
Sean Schielke, 27, formerly of Southbury
A 1992 graduate of Pomperaug High School in Southbury, Schielke moved to New York City three years ago. He became a stock trader for Cantor Fitzgerald five months ago, working on the 105th floor of the trade center, said his father, Ken Schielke.
His parents were watching television Tuesday morning and saw an airplane crash into the building where their son worked.
"We know he was at work that day. We know it definitely," Ken Schielke said. "There is always hope for a miracle. But we watched it and we know. The reality is -- it's a tough thing, but if we let him go, he can find peace and we can, too, as hard as it is. In our case, you know, you just know that he was gone."
Schielke has a twin, Brandon, and an older brother, Kenneth Jr. He graduated from the University of Connecticut.
Brandon Schielke described his twin as "my best friend."
"We were together for almost 20 years in the same room," he said. The twins, who attended separate colleges, still tried to get together every other weekend, and spent each summer together.
Brandon and Kenneth Schielke Jr. traveled to New York City last week to visit their brother's apartment, which he shared with longtime girlfriend Sarah Christie, a former Woodbury resident.
"It was comforting to be surrounded by his good friends, sharing warm stories," Brandon Schielke said. "It was nice to be surrounded by people who love him as much as we do."
Thomas Theurkauf Jr., 44, Stamford
The telephone and the doorbell kept ringing Saturday at the Glastonbury house of Thomas Theurkauf's parents. Old friends were calling and dropping by, many bringing home-cooked meals along with their prayers.
"The outpouring of support has just been amazing," said Barbara Theurkauf, Thomas' younger sister. Among those expressing their concern were Thomas Theurkauf's elementary school teacher, his classmates from Glastonbury High School and former Lt. Gov. Eunice Groark, a family friend.
Theurkauf, who lives in Stamford with his wife, Robin, and their children, has not been seen since Tuesday's attack on the World Trade Center. A renowned banking analyst with the firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, he was named one of Wall Street's "Top Guns" by the Wall Street Journal in June.
Theurkauf's father, also named Thomas, was diagnosed with cancer last week.
"It's quite an ordeal," Barbara Theurkauf said.
John F. Iskyan, 41, Wilton
Tuesday's terrorism attack wasn't the first that Iskyan had experienced at the World Trade Center. The bond broker and partner at the financial securities and brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald worked on the 105th floor of the north tower. He had lived through the 1993 bombing, said his brother-in-law Robert Keeling.
After the first plane hit, a friend called Iskyan, who said he was about to leave the building and would see the friend later. Friday, Iskyan's family was told he was among the confirmed dead. The family has already planned his Tuesday funeral.
"We were just fortunate. ... God was good to us," Keeling said of the notification.
Iskyan grew up in Manhassett, Long Island, and was married to Margaret Pitt Iskyan. He enjoyed the outdoors, often with his two children, 12-year-old Peter and 9-year-old Carolynn.
Michael M. Miller, 39, formerly of Milford
"We don't know how we're going to get out," Miller told his fiancee, Patricia Skic, after American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center Tuesday. "I love you and tell Mom and Dad that I love them."
Miller, a trader with Cantor Fitzgerald, and Skic got engaged last Christmas and were planning their wedding. Now Skic is busy tracking down Miller's dental records and scouring hairbrushes for stray hairs, in case a DNA sample is needed to identify his body.
Although the couple lived in New Jersey, Miller grew up in Milford, where he played football and ran track at Foran High School. "He was a big jock," said his father, James Miller.
Since Tuesday, people in Milford have been calling the family to offer their prayers. "We're not alone," said Miller's mother, Betty Ann. "There are thousands just like us. Of course, that doesn't help any."
William C. Hunt, 32, Norwalk
A bond broker for Euro Brokers, Hunt worked on the 84th floor of the south tower for three years. His younger brother Daniel Hunt described him as a go-getter who loved to ski and strived to be successful at anything he tried. But everything paled in comparison to his daughter Emma's birth 15 months ago. Hunt would wake up each day, and his eyes would light up when he saw her, Daniel Hunt said. Hunt's family, including his wife, Jennifer, is now waiting, hoping to get a call.
Eamon McEneaney, 46, New Canaan
McEneaney, of Elmont, N.Y., lived in New Canaan for the past six years and was a senior vice president at Cantor Fitzgerald. He took the train to work on Tuesday, and his wife, Bonnie, and four children haven't heard from him since. He graduated from Cornell University and was a lacrosse player.
Stephen LaMantia, 38, Darien
LaMantia worked on the 105th floor of the north tower, in charge of the asset-backed securities desk for Cantor Fitzgerald. He was on the phone with a client at about 9 a.m. Tuesday. He told his friend that he would try to leave the building, said his father-in-law, Tom Stewart.
In describing LaMantia, Stewart said he wants to speak in the present tense. His son-in-law, he said, is a "very wonderful and loving husband, caring and devoted father and a very, very humorous and outgoing man."
He grew up in East Meadow, Long Island, and has lived in Darien for 10 years. A member of Noroton Presbyterian Church, LaMantia is married to Kimberly and is the father of Emily, 9, and Craig, 6. Stewart said the family appreciates the rescue attempts in New York City and urges national leaders to exercise restraint as they consider responses to the attack.
"Our faith leads in a different direction, as painful as this is at this time," Stewart said.
Tyler V. Ugolyn, 23, Ridgefield
Ugolyn graduated from Ridgefield High School in 1997 and worked at the World Trade Center. "He was a great kid and a very excellent student," said Al Trimpert, his former basketball coach. "He lived to play basketball." Several colleges recruited the 6-foot-2 Ugolyn. He ultimately chose Columbia University. He hasn't been seen since Tuesday.
Robert J. Gerlich, 56, Monroe
Gerlich began working two weeks ago on the 94th floor of the World Trade Center, north tower, as a reinsurance consultant for Guy Carpenter & Co., a subsidiary of Marsh USA.
His daily morning routine was to walk his pudgy beagle, pick up a cup of coffee, a few lottery tickets and a newspaper. His favorite teams were the New York Mets and New York Jets. Gerlich, a Queens native, graduated from St John's University.
"He was never happier than when he was at a sporting event. He'd go see the [Bridgeport] Bluefish all the time. He just loved going to baseball games," said his son, Dan. "He watched a lot of news. He'd be glued to the set right now."
"He'd always go out of the way to make sure we had a good time," Matt, a son, said, recalling his father would drive him 20 or 30 miles to attend a punk concert, then pick him up afterward. Gerlich's wife, Rochelle, has been surrounded by friends and family awaiting word.
Michael Rothberg, 39, Old Greenwich
Rothberg was an equity trader for Cantor Fitzgerald working on the 104th floor of the north tower. About 10 minutes before the plane hit, Rothberg had called his sister Rhonda Rothberg's office in Massachusetts to try out his new telephone system and to hear how he sounded. His sister had not yet arrived so Rothberg talked to her assistant.
After hearing about the attack, Rothberg's parents, Jay and Iris Rothberg, and grandmother Celia Rothberg drove up from Florida to Old Greenwich. "We have not found anybody in the upper floors who has yet to survive," Jay Rothberg said. "Other memorial services for his associates are starting as early as [Sunday]. ... We have to come to grips ... that our hope is over for him coming back alive."
Michael Rothberg earned a master's degree in mathematics and computer science in 1986 from McGill University in Montreal. His goal was to work in the high-tech financial field.
Edward T. Fergus Jr., 40, Wilton
Fergus, a married father of two, enjoyed the outdoors and spending time working on his lawn and home, neighbor Lisa Crosby said. Fergus, his wife, Linda, and their two children moved from Norwalk to Wilton a year ago. As a family they hiked, skied and enjoyed boating.
Pedro Grehan, 35, formerly of Greenwich
Grehan, who worked on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center, moved to Jersey City in November 2000. Previously, he lived in the Cos Cob and Old Greenwich sections of Greenwich.
Kiran Kumar Gopu, 25, Bridgeport
Gopu, a student at the University of Bridgeport, was working toward his master's degree in computer science and was working on the 96th floor of the north tower as a computer programmer with Marsh USA.
Originally from the south of India, Gopu had met several other friends from his homeland in his graduate program, and they decided to rent an apartment near campus, said his friend Bharath Durga. Gopu planned to return to India once he graduated. At about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Gopu talked on the phone with one of his friends, saying he was on his way into the office and would call once he left his job. His friends have been searching for him since.
Compiled by Courant Staff Writers.
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