25 Years On, Needham Feels Impact of 9/11

September 11, 2026
• During a ceremony Friday morning, speakers shared their desire for peace and unity a generation since the tragedy.

Outside the Public Safety Building, two stone towers overlook a piece of steel beam, recovered from the World Trade Center. The message etched beneath the memorial reads “Always Remember.”

A quarter century later, many of those alive on Sept. 11, 2001 remember it all: where they were, words exchanged with loved ones, and their thoughts, fears and loss from that day.

Needham joined the nation in collective grief Friday morning, marking 25 years after the terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of 2,977 victims that day. Hundreds more would die due to sustained injuries, including first responders.

The town held a ceremony beside its 9/11 memorial at 10 a.m., moments after the South Tower collapsed 25 years ago. The North Tower would fall less than 30 minutes later.

A member of the Needham Fire Department opened and closed the ceremony by ringing a bell. The first ring signifies the loss of an on-duty firefighter, and the second indicates that the fire is out and calls the crew home, Fire Chief Tom Conroy said.

In response to the tragedy, 12 Needham firefighters traveled to Ground Zero to aid in the effort to extract people from the rubble. In attendance Friday were some of those members, who Conroy recognized during his remarks. He called those present to remember those who didn’t make it, who died “trying to save others [but] who could not save themselves.”

“As firefighters and first responders, we will never forget the ones who left before us,” Conroy said. “Thank you to the community, the community where I grew up, who always supported us. You lift us up. You remind us that our service has purpose.”

A large American flag, affixed to the ladder of a fire truck, flew over School Street, casting a wide shadow near the ceremony. Passersby deposited coins on the memorial, which was decorated with stones, flowers and mini fire trucks.

Of the 206 Massachusetts victims, four had connections to Needham. Lisa Feen Gordenstein, 41, and David Retik, 33, were both on board American Airlines Flight 11 when it crashed into the North Tower. Co-piloting that plane was Thomas McGuinness Jr., 42, whose family had ties to Needham. Susan Blair, a 1984 Needham High School graduate, worked on the 92nd floor of the South Tower.

State Sen. Becca Rausch, who lives in Needham, considers her family “among the lucky ones.” Her mother planned to take an early morning meeting at the World Trade Center, but it was canceled just the day before. Her uncle was in the Pentagon, but during the attack, the side of the building he was in was not impacted. But in the long hours after the news of the tragedy broke, Rausch said she couldn’t reach either of them.

Those who remember 9/11 have stories just like hers, Rausch said, and remember “people coming together to take care of each other.” She recalled the bravery of those onboard Flight 93, which passengers diverted to a Pennsylvania field, as well as first responders from New York and beyond who “ran into terror to save lives.”

The impact remains, even though significant time has now passed.

“It is hard to believe that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were 25 years ago,” Rausch said. “We remember the shock and fear of that day, but also the courage and heroism, the care and community. May those be the memories and ideals that guide us forward.”

What sticks most with state Rep. Josh Tarsky is “the sense of unity the country had at the time.” That sentiment may have gotten lost in the years since, he said.

“It was really refreshing, and I’m really happy that on this 25th anniversary, that I’m remembering some of the way America used to be, and what I think America can be again,” said Tarsky, who also lives in Needham. “And I hope that we all take that and move forward with that, because these divisive times will end. It will end, and America will need to unite to make it the place that we all hope it can be.”

In the decades since, “a lot of division has come out of 9/11,” said Dorothy, a former Needham resident who declined to give her last name. She moved to Needham in 2004, when the events were still fresh and she tried hard not to think about them. On the 25th anniversary, she said she thought it was time to reflect on the tragedy, and to consider the difference in our world because of it.

At the time, Bob Gatulis, of Needham, worked for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which was under perceived threat. Gatulis remembers the state considered shutting down the transit system out of precaution.

“Nobody knew what was next,” he said.

Gatulis sat glued to the TV that day, he said, adding that “it’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years.”

“So many things have changed because of it,” he said, pointing to our enhanced airport security and bolstered federal agencies.

After 9/11, the nation entered a changed world, Select Board Chair Heidi Frail said. That looked like the Transportation Security Administration and armed conflict, empty beds and grief. Her second child, who was born on Sept. 11, 2004, offers her a yearly moment of reflection.

“On every birthday, I think of those who are missing, the children who grew up without a parent, those who struggled to raise their children alone, and the parents whose grown children never came home,” Frail said.

In a prayer, Fire Chaplain Phil McGaw called for “the dreams of peace and love for all [to] move from the seemingly impossible to a reality.”

“We hope and pray that someday violence and cruelness will end, and a sense of peace and hope will be restored,” McGaw said.