The D-E community’s discussion about Sept. 11 continued Thursday with Upper School (US) Assembly guest speaker Joe Daniels, the former president of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, as well as a faculty-led Lunch & Learn this afternoon. Austin Knafo ’28, who is a 9/11 volunteer and whose father was a first responder in NYC at the time of the attacks, introduced Mr. Daniels. “My family has a deep connection to Sept. 11,” said Austin. “[These conversations] make this history a little more real.”
Mr. Daniels, who worked at McKinsey & Co., near the World Trade Center, said especially during the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, he felt “an obligation to share a bit of what it was like.” He recounted commuting to work that day, fortuitously a bit later than usual, and witnessing harrowing scenes of devastation, including the moment the second plane hit the South Tower and both towers’ eventual .collapse.
“What stood out,” he said, “was the way people did everything they could to try to help.” In the months to come, victims would be honored as names forever etched in bronze along the Memorial’s reflecting pools, and impactful stories of heroism would live on as special galleries and displays throughout the Museum. Mr. Daniels said the goal of the nonprofit was for visitors to experience 9/11 as told by the people who were there and “to understand how complete strangers came together out of shared humanity and compassion during the worst foreign attack we’ve faced in our nation’s 250 years.”
During today’s engaging and well-attended Lunch & Learn, Dr. Vendell, US History Teacher; Ms. Sclafani, Senior Advisor to the Head of School; and Mr. Lee ’17, US Assistant Director of DEIB, continued the conversation from a historical, domestic, and societal context, respectively. #NeverForget