Remember September 11, 2001
I was searching for something else online and came across
this site today. I didn’t know this person. Remember
September 11, 2001. None of us are promised tomorrow. May God help us all. Today, may He especially help those whose lives were so tragically impacted on 9/11/01.
JAMES W. BARBELLA
World Trade Center
It was not enough, for example, for Mr. Barbella, a
53-year-old property manager for the Port Authority, to simply climb 110
flights of stairs during his fitness routine, which he often fitted into his
lunch hour. That would be wimpy. Instead, he would go down all the way to the
subbasement of the World Trade Center and begin his climb there. And it was
also not enough to simply climb to the top. He would descend by the stairs as
well.
JAMES W. BARBELLA
World Trade Center
‘HE WOULD NEVER GIVE UP’
James W. Barbella was a former United States marine, and
that made certain of his habits ‹ the day-to-day decisions he’d be likely to
make, the course he might be expected to take in a crisis ‹ quite predictable,
said his widow, Monica.
Mr. Barbella, who was responsible for floors 9 to 40 in the
south tower, lived in Oceanside, N.Y., on Long Island, and had worked for the
Port Authority for 28 years. He was last seen ushering three police officers up
the stairs during the evacuation of the Trade Center just before its collapse.
“I knew, as soon as I heard, that that’s exactly where he
would be,” Mrs. Barbella said. “He would never give up.”
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 16, 2001.
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