On Anniversary of 9/11, Needham Remembers
September 11, 2024
• In remembrance of the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers, Needham residents came together to pay tribute to the victims of the tragedy.
At 9:59 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed, just 56 minutes after hijackers, piloting a plane headed from Boston, crashed into it as part of larger attack on the country. Twenty-three years later, around the same time, Needham rang out a bell, signifying “that the fire is out, the incident is over and it’s calling the firefighters home,” Fire Chief Tom Conroy said.
By Needham’s 9/11 memorial outside the Public Safety Building, community members remembered the lives lost on that day and recognized the resonant, sustained impact of the attacks on the country.
Of the nearly 3,000 people who died — and more than 25,000 who suffered injuries — 343 firefighters were also killed, and more than 360 additional New York City firefighters have died in the aftermath. The Needham Fire Department sent 12 of its own to New York to respond to the attacks, digging and moving rubble to extract people.
Then an early-career Needham firefighter, Conroy remembers reporting for work in town and sensing the eeriness of the clear skies. Looking up, all he and his colleagues saw were circling fighter jets.
During the ceremony, Conroy urged people to remember the day not just for the heinous acts committed, but also “for the courage, the valor, the sacrifice made in the name of love for their country.”
“Now it’s been 23 years,” Conroy said in an interview, “and to have the people come out, older and younger, and to be able to send that message that we’re always going to remember, I think it’s important.”
Among the lives lost were Needham residents Lisa Feen Gordenstein, 41, and David Retik, 33, who were on board American Airlines Flight 11 when it crashed into the North Tower. Co-piloting that plane was Thomas McGuinness Jr., 42, whose family hailed from Needham. Susan Blair, a 1984 Needham High School graduate, worked on the 92nd floor of the South Tower.
Needham’s memorial displays a piece of a steel beam, recovered from the Twin Towers.
In an opening prayer, Fire Chaplain Phil McGaw called for hope.
“Many may not remember 9/11 because they were not born yet,” McGraw said. “Our memories are still heavy, and our pain is so real from all of these losses.”
As the events unfolded, state Rep. Denise Garlick’s husband flew out of Logan International Airport that morning and over New York, where he saw the Twin Towers, she said.
But terror soon set in, as the family was separated and much was still unknown. As a nurse, Garlick said she waited for the call to help efforts at Ground Zero, but none came. Garlick felt “the immense weight of what that meant,” she said.
Now, as a legislator, she continues to remember what took place that day.
“What we witnessed on that day with our public safety people — police officers, the firefighters – was the essence of what public service is, that willingness to serve others at times in great jeopardy of your own safety, of your own life, and to do that as an instinct, not as an order, but as an instinct,” Garlick said. “I believe in public service with every cell in my body. I think that’s one of the greatest examples.”
Select Board Chair Kevin Keane thanked local public law enforcement for their service, echoing Conroy’s message that evil did not win on 9/11.
“As one surviving firefighter observed, it was goodness that prevailed that day, and that goodness was provided by fire and police,” Keane said, turning to the officers in attendance. “Twenty-three years later, it is you who carry the mantle. You all took different paths to join fire and police, but I’m confident that doing good was on the short list of why you wanted to join the force.”
Police Chief John Schlittler, a detective at the time, recalls the clear blue sky that morning, but also how quickly the day changed. First responders run toward danger without hesitation, Schlittler said, and 9/11 exemplified that commitment to serve and, in some cases, give your life to that service.
That selflessness acts as a guiding principle for all emergency personnel, he said.
“I think it’s a duty of all of us to not only our first responders, but our people in public service, our military, the sacrifices that they make on a daily basis to serve their community,” Schlittler said. “It’s refreshing to know that people still remember it, and they still care.”
