Editor’s Note: This story contains sensitive topics related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, including firsthand accounts from those impacted.
The Daily Texan is compiling a running compendium of stories from Longhorns with connections to 9/11. To share your story, email [email protected].
On Sept. 11, 2001, Gil Aronow was at his home in Brooklyn when he first saw news reports that a plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center. He climbed the stairs to his rooftop, and from miles away, immediately saw dark smoke and scraps of paper billowing into the otherwise clear sky over lower Manhattan.
From that point on, it was chaos. Aronow’s brother, Richard, a UT law alumnus, worked as an attorney for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and his office was on the 66th floor of the north tower. Gil couldn’t get ahold of Richard, but that wasn’t uncommon — as the minutes passed, calls were harder and harder to connect, the result of thousands of people overwhelming phone lines in the region.
“There’s a photo of my son, who was 4, and me, sitting in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, just waiting,” Anonow said. “We were just hoping that he was injured or in the hospital somewhere … that it was like he somehow couldn’t communicate. But it became pretty apparent pretty quickly that there weren’t a lot of people injured and (unreachable).”
Seventeen minutes after American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north tower, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the south tower. Thirty-four minutes after that, American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Fifty-six minutes after it was initially hit, the south tower collapsed, followed by the north tower 29 minutes later. At the same time, passengers on board United Airlines Flight 93 retook the cockpit from hijackers, deliberately crashing the plane into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone onboard but saving the lives of those at the plane’s original D.C. destination. From the moment of Flight 11’s initial collision to the collapse of the second tower, 102 minutes had passed – less than two hours.
2,977 victims died on 9/11, a death toll that’s more than doubled as the result of 9/11 related illnesses, three of whom were Longhorns. A small memorial was erected in their honor outside of the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center in 2021.
In the days that followed, Gil would find out that Richard died in the collapse. His body would be recovered from the rubble at ground zero just days after his funeral was held in la-te September. Richard Avery Aronow graduated from Texas Law in 1978 and was well known by his family as someone who loved research and held an encyclopedic knowledge of records relating to the Port Authority.
Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas graduated from UT in 1986 with an undergraduate degree in health sciences. She planned to fly home to San Francisco from her grandmother’s funeral in New Jersey on Sept. 11; after arriving early at the airport, she was asked if she’d like to board an earlier flight, which she did — Flight 93. She and her husband, Jack Grandcolas, had been trying for years to have a baby, and that day, she was three months pregnant.
“I was at home in Marin when I awoke and learned what was happening,” Jack wrote in a statement. “I raced downstairs to see if Lauren left any messages. She did, 2, one telling me she was on an earlier flight, the other from the plane. She stated there’s a “little problem” but wanted me to know she loved me.”
Lauren’s voicemail was played in a newly-released documentary, “The Heroism and Resiliency of 9/11.”
“Honey, are you there? Jack, pick up, sweetie. Okay, well, I just wanted to tell you I love you. We’re having a little problem on the plane. I’m totally fine, I just love you more than anything, just know that. And you know, I’m, you know, I’m comfortable and I’m okay for now. Just a little problem. So I just love you, please tell my family I love them too. Bye, honey.”
Lauren had just left her consultant job at Good Housekeeping to write a book meant to “inspire women to follow their dreams.” That book was completed by her sisters and published in her honor. Grandcolas said Lauren’s legacy is that of bravery.
Peter Moutos graduated from UT in 1983 with a bachelor’s in business administration, and worked on the 100th floor as a systems consultant at Marsh & McLennan. He’d been married to his wife Meg, a school nurse, for a little over a year. On a memorial site dedicated in his honor, she recounted their daily routines as newlyweds.
“He’d say, ‘I love you, gorgeous woman,’ and I’d say, ‘I love you, handsome young man,’ and he’d go off in the morning,” the site reads. “At 5 he’d call me: ‘How’s my gorgeous woman?’ ‘How’s my handsome young man?’ and tell me what time to pick him up at the train, and then we’d go to the (YMCA) together in Madison.”
On campus, thousands gathered for a candlelight vigil the day of the attack, including then-Governor Rick Perry. During the day, a small TV set was placed by the Tower for students to watch the news in an era before cell phones or the internet were widespread.
In New York, in Austin and around the world, people watched the events of 9/11 unfold live on television, witnessing firsthand a moment that forever changed the world. The minutes, days, months and years that followed were filled with heartbreak, uncertainty and fear, but also produced remarkable acts of bravery, heroism and unity that leave an impact today.
The Daily Texan spoke with more than a dozen Longhorns who were impacted by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, reviewed months of archival documents and coverage and contacted more than 50 departments and centers across every college and school at UT. Short stories from around the world documenting the impact 9/11 had on UT students, alumni and faculty can be read in full below.