Hope and resilience, spurred by the worst of tragedies, continues to grow from the story of Welles Remy Crowther.
The Upper Nyack volunteer firefighter has been credited with saving at least 18 lives on 9/11. He worked in the south tower, and led rounds of people to safety. Crowther headed back in one last time and was killed when the building collapsed.
For months, his family didn't really know what happened to the 24-year-old equities trader.
Then stories of "the Man in the Red Bandana" surfaced. A man with a kerchief tied around his face had emerged from the smoke in the Sky Lobby on the 78th floor of the south tower. He told the shocked and injured, "follow me," and they did.
The legacy of the Man in the Red Bandana has been recounted and embraced
worldwide. Thousands of students have participated in the Red Bandanna Project, part of the Welles Remy Crowther Family Trust, that cultivates essential skills such as self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, social awareness, and responsible decision-making.
Welles Crowther's story continues to inspire
Welles Crowther will be honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, President Donald Trump announced in May. There's a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to grant him the Congressional Gold Medal, among the nation's highest civilian awards.
The Irish-American Celtic punk band Dropkick Murphys released a new song, "A Hero Among Many," that recounts the bravery Welles Crowther displayed on 9/11.
In March, Alison Crowther was on stage at MGM Music Hall at Fenway as the left-leaning, anti-MAGA Dropkick Murphys played the song during "Red Bandanna Night," which honors Welles Crowther, a Boston College alum and lacrosse standout. Alison Crowther, 77, said she skipped the mosh pit but passed out signature red bandanas to the crowd.
She also stood on stage with Trump at SUNY Rockland Community College on May 22 as a Republican president and congressman, U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, recounted Crowther's actions on 9/11 that saved lives but cost his own.
Alison Crowther stands for her son's memory first over politics. She relishes how the crowds at these most recent events — so different in their political leanings — embraced her boy.
"His story encompasses the spectrum," she said of her son's legacy.
"After all these years," she added, "people are still loving him."
An urge to be 'part of something big'
Alison Crowther, during a recent USA TODAY Network interview at her cottage in Upper Nyack, said she expects her oldest child's legacy will continue to grow and more will know of his heroism.
Every September, letters from students learning about his story pile up at Crowther's home, she said. Just a couple years ago, she received an oil portrait of Welles from someone she didn't know and hasn't been able to contact.
And new recollections of Welles, even from that fateful Tuesday in September, continue to reach Alison.
A woman whose husband had worked with Welles at Sandler O'Neill & Partners recently revealed a new story about Welles. The couple, who have a young son named for Welles, had become friends with Alison in recent years. The woman told Alison that her husband had recalled seeing Welles among a group evacuating the offices on the 104th floor by elevator after American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north tower at 8:46 a.m.
In other words, Welles was below the danger zone when United Airlines Flight 175 struck the south tower at 9:03 a.m.
This information about Welles' actions that day, coming nearly a quarter-century later, stunned Alison Crowther. "It looks like he was below the Sky Lobby when the plane hit and went back up," she said, another documentation of her son's heroism that day.
Another colleague had recalled Welles helping clear the blocked stairwell that would have provided a pathway up to the Sky Lobby and back down.
It all makes sense to Alison Crowther.
"He showed no signs of injuries, victims said," Alison Crowther noted. It would also be why, as he told those trapped, that he knows the way.
Because he had already made it and then headed back up.
Welles had been home for the weekend that Labor Day before 9/11. Alison recalled he seemed uncharacteristically mellow.
She found out later that Welles had talked to his dad about maybe joining the FDNY. His father, a banker by trade, advised him to keep his high-paying job for now; Welles, Jefferson Crowther reasoned, was still young and there would be time in the future if he still had the firefighting bug.
Alison recalled her son telling her he wanted a job with more action. "I know I'm going to be part of something big," her son told her of what became destiny.
In 2006, Welles Remy Crowther was named an honorary member of the FDNY.
Discovering 'The Man in the Red Bandana'
Alison, father Jefferson and sisters Honor and Paige didn't know for months what had happened to Welles nor the heroism he displayed on that day.
When Welles Crowther was recovered in March 2002, his body was found in the south tower main lobby. Later it was surmised that he was alongside first responders in what was believed to have been a staging area for rescue efforts.
Alison said she scoured every photo or video released from ground zero, read every account, searching for an inkling of where her son had been and what happened. She knew early on Welles had not survived, but she wanted to know everything she could about what he experienced.
Welles Crowther always carried a red bandana in his back pocket, a habit learned from his dad, Jefferson Crowther, who kept a blue bandana.
It was that red bandana that marked his heroism Sept. 11 and led his mother to find her son's story.
In May 2002, Alison Crowther was reading an article in The New York Times, "Fighting to Live as the Towers Died."
Midway in the moment-by-moment account before the towers fell, she saw the first mention of a man wearing a red handkerchief around his face, under a section timestamped 9:05 a.m.
Judy Wein recalled seeing this mysterious man appearing on the south tower's 78th Floor Elevator Sky Lobby, where people could switch from express elevators to the ground floor from local elevators.
Then, Ling Young told The New York Times about a man in the red bandana who led her group from the Sky Lobby. The man, the women recounted, told them he knew the way, and to help those they could.
Because of the man in the red bandana, they had lived.
Alison knew it was her Welles.
She met with one of the women. She showed them a picture of her Welles. Ling Young recognized him.
"It made sense," Alison Crowther told The Journal News in June 2002, for the first article to name Welles Remy Crowther as the Man in the Red Bandanna. "All the pieces of the puzzle came together."
Welles and his father Jefferson Crowther were volunteer firefighters at Empire Hook and Ladder in Upper Nyack, known as Goosetown. Members of all-volunteer firefighting forces are well trained in every aspect of emergency response.
The knowledge gave Alison and Jefferson Crowther a modicum of comfort. "He looked the devil straight in the eye that day and fought with all the strength and fiber of his being," Alison Crowther said then. "He died saving others."
He and his bandana became legend.
Trust to carry on legacy of Welles Crowther
The family, meanwhile, was receiving donations, completely unsolicited, from all over.
The Crowthers decided to establish the Welles Remy Crowther Charitable Trust.
The Red Bandanna Project offers social and emotional learning curriculum, inspired by the legacy of Welles Remy Crowther, with lessons for students through kindergarten to college. Its been used in 38 states and four countries to help young people cultivate essential skills such as self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, social awareness, and responsible decision-making.
In 2016, Tom Rinaldi of ESPN shared the story of Welles Remy Crowther's heroic actions on 9/11 and then published a book, "The Red Bandanna: A life. A choice. A legacy," which became a New York Times bestseller and spread the story further.
A children's book, "The Man In the Red Bandanna," was written by Welles' sister, Honor Crowther Fagan, and illustrated by his uncle, John Crowther.
Jefferson Crowther died in 2019 at age 73, after a battle with prostate cancer. A contributing factor, Alison Crowther has said, was grief. "9/11 killed my husband."
Alison Crowther said it is a great comfort her two daughters, Honor Crowther Fagan and Paige Crowther Charbonneau, and six grandchildren, from first-grade to college age, live nearby.
Boston College, where Welles played lacrosse, continues to honor the Man in the Red Bandanna through annual events including Red Bandanna games by various sports teams. A 5K run, sponsored by Volunteer Service and Learning Center, helps fund the Trust.
BC also has a program called the Red Bandanna Leadership Fellows. Alison meets with the fellows each fall to tell them about Welles.
Then there's Boston College's Prison Education Program, which helps incarcerated men and women earn a bachelor's degree. The men's prison now hosts a Red Bandanna Day.
While Alison Crowther has worked hard to create a large tent for those inspired by Welles, she has not shied from fighting for what she sees as right and speaking out if she sees something wrong.
Alison Crowther has spoken out for Justice Against State Sponsored Terrorism Bill, and supported additional funding for the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, established in 2015, which provides monetary support for eligible victims of international terrorism, including 9/11 families.
The fights aren't always easy or comfortable.
"What Welles has done is he's given me a moral compass to work through messy things," she said.
But that is not where Alison Crowther dwells.
Welles' overarching inspiration, his mother said, remains on helping youth build character. "We try to give good messages, especially to young people. ... Each and every day you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world."
Nancy Cutler covers People & Policy. Reach her at ncutler@lohud.com; follow her on X, Bluesky and Instagram at @nancyrockland.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: How the Man in the Red Bandana legacy of Welles Crowther continues
