Sept. 11 , 2002
Penn State commemorates Sept. 11 anniversary;
ceremony remembers 10 alumni lost in attacks

For photos of September 11, 2002 events, click here.

Penn State officials held a University-wide observance of the one-year anniversary of Sept. 11, featuring a remembrance of the 10 known Penn State alumni who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington and the hijacked airline crash in Shanksville, Pa.

The solemn interfaith ceremony, organized by a committee of Penn State students, faculty, staff and local officials,began at noon Wednesday, Sept. 11, in Eisenhower Auditorium on the University Park campus.

“The impact of the devastation of Sept. 11 continues to echo around the world and our lives have all been changed forever,” said Sharon Mortensen, interim director of Penn State’s Center for Ethics and Religious Affairs and chair of the commemoration’s organizing committee.

“We wanted to develop an event that recognizes the 10 Penn State alumni who died that day, but also the many other Penn Staters who were touched in personal ways by those events.”

Two student leaders began the program with an invocation, followed by a series of spiritual readings by various members of Penn State Campus Ministries and hymns led by a University choral group.

Speaking at the ceremony was U.S. Navy Cmdr. David Hulse, a 1982 alumnus who was in the Pentagon at the National Military Command Center when the attack took place. A member of Penn State's NROTC, Hulse is presently on the JCS Staff. Hulse was in the Pentagon at the National Military Command Center when the attack took place. His wife, Elizabeth '83 Edu, also is a Penn State graduate.

Also speaking was Anne Prosser Warrell, a 1994 alumna, who is an international finance manager for Clearstream Banking, which was located on the 90th floor of the north tower. Warrell was in the building when the first plane hit and was able to get out. She continues to work for Clearstream Banking in Manhattan.

The event concluded with the choir leading a group singing of “America the Beautiful.”

The commemoration was a centerpiece to many other events taking place at University Park and other campus locations and their surrounding communities. For details of those events, click here.

“Our goal is to complement the many other events scheduled that day and that week, both nationally and around the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” added Mortensen.