(This story originally appeared in the Detroit Free Press on Sept. 5, 2002.)
They were among America's best, brightest and happiest.
Many had attended some of the finest schools -- Cranbrook, Detroit Country Day, the University of Michigan, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Vanderbilt.
As teens, they walked the halls of schools from Cass Tech in Detroit to Traverse City High, all of them contributing, achieving, giving back. They were young scholars and financial wizards, technology gurus, National Honor Society members, athletes, musicians, champions of theater, contributors to their communities.
Most of them were well traveled -- and well on their way to the kind of success that defines the American Dream. A few already had achieved that dream, with
homes in Manhattan, book credits, TV appearances.
One of them survived the 1993 terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center.
They are gone now, these 16 terrorism victims who had significant Michigan ties. But their legacies live on -- in their accomplishments and through their loved ones left behind.
Financial whiz kid on fast track to success
Terrence E. Adderley Jr., 22, had a head and a heart for finance by the time he was a teenager. Before even graduating from Detroit Country Day in 1997, he had started an investment club. His grandfather, William Russell Kelly, founded Kelly Services of Troy in 1946, and his father, Terence E. Adderley, is its president and chief executive officer.
Adderley, who grew up in Bloomfield Hills, took his love of finance to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics in May 2001. Soon after, he landed a job with Fred Alger Management Inc., which had offices on the 93rd floor of the trade center's north tower.
Joseph White, a University of Michigan business professor and former interim president, said Adderley had tremendous potential.
White knew Adderley through U-M alumnus David Alger, president of Fred Alger Management. As a young analyst for the company, "Ted was thriving," White said. "He loved what he was doing."
Besides his father, survivors include his mother, Mary Elizabeth; five sisters, and a grandmother.
Executive had eye for best, brightest
David Alger, 57, president of Fred Alger Management Inc., was a familiar fixture on CNN, MSNBC and CNBC -- and at many U-M events. He was a prominent alumnus and supporter of the U-M business school, where, White said, he was the spring commencement speaker in 1997 and served on the school's senior advisory board.
Alger loved grooming young people for business and often returned to his alma mater.
"David was a terrifically talented man," White said. "A colleague of mine said, 'I loved David's rational exuberance,' and she got it just right. That was David: very analytical and very optimistic. . . .
"David encouraged people to participate in what he thought would be the biggest bull market in American history -- in 1991. It was an incredible prediction."
Alger was born Dec. 15, 1943, in California but grew up in Grosse Pointe. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a master's in business administration from U-M in 1968. He joined his brother Fred's company, Fred Alger Management, in 1972 as an analyst. He eventually owned 20 percent of the business.
In 1995, Alger's brother moved to Geneva, Switzerland,and left him in control of the company's daily operations. At the time of Alger's death, the firm's assets had grown from $3 billion to $15 billion and its workforce from 82 to 220.
Alger, who owned homes in Manhattan and Tuxedo Park, N.Y., loved technology stocks and managed mutual funds that ranked near the top of the 1990s bull market. He often appeared on financial TV programs and wrote "Raging Bull: How to Invest in the Growth Stocks of the '90s."
On Sept. 11, Alger was working in company offices on the 93rd floor of the trade center's north tower. There were 1,300 people at his funeral, said White, who attended. Alger is survived by his wife, Josephine; two daughters; his brother, and a sister.
Unfettered spirit loved the city life
Eric Bennett, 29, a Flint native, caught the travel bug early when he took a trip overseas with a high school foreign language club. He traveled often afterward, said his mother, Kathy Bennett of Flint.
He visited Brazil, Puerto Rico, Rome, London and Paris. But Bennett also loved the Brooklyn, N.Y., brownstone where he lived, the big-city life in New York and his job as area vice president for Alliance Consulting Group. His office was on the 102nd floor of the trade center's north tower.
"From his home, he could see the towers, and from his desk at work, he could see Brooklyn," his mother said. "He just loved life."
In 1989, Bennett graduated from Flint's Kearsley High School, where he had been cocaptain of the football team the year before. In 1993, he received a bachelor of science degree in computer information systems from Ferris State University. He also played football at Ferris State and earned an All-Midwest Intercollegiate Football Conference honorable mention in 1992.
In addition to his mother, he is survived by his father, Terry Bennett, and a sister.
Wings fan held family close to his heart
Frank Doyle, 39, formerly of New Boston and Bloomfield Hills, was a loyal Detroit Red Wings fan. He grew up playing hockey and was the varsity goalie from his first year on at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Later, he played on three mens hockey teams near his Englewood, N.J., home.
Doyle attended Huron High School in New Boston and graduated from the Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills in 1980. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from Bowdoin with majors in economics and government in 1985. He also earned a master's in business administration from New York University's Stern School of Business in 1993.
Doyle was senior vice president of the Keefe Bruyette & Woods brokerage in the trade center's south tower. He directed its equity and trading department and was on the company's board of directors.
Just before his death, Doyle was training for triathlons.
"He was probably in the best shape of his life" and planned to run a triathlon the weekend after the terrorist attacks, said his wife, Kim Chedel. But, she said, Doyle mostly "loved being a dad" to their children, Zoe and Garrett, who were 3 and 16 months when their father died.
Doyle and Chedel had both escaped harm when the trade center was bombed by terrorists in 1993. Chedel, who then worked at a brokerage in a different part of the complex than her husband, escaped within 2 hours. She said she cried for hours while waiting for Doyle to emerge.
On Sept. 11, Doyle called Chedel after the first plane hit. He was on the 87th floor of the south tower -- the second hit but the first to fall.
"He said, 'If you think we got rocked in '93, this was 10 times worse,' " Chedel said.
"I said, 'Frank, get out of there.' He said to me, 'The PA system said it was . . . more secure to stay in the building.' "
Doyle called his wife again at 9:22 a.m. "He said, 'Sweetie, we've gone up to the roof. The doors are locked, and we can't go down. I know you know this, but I love you . . . and you need to tell Zoe and Garrett every day for the rest of their lives how much Daddy loves them."
His survivors also include his mother, Maureen Doyle of New Boston, and three siblings.
Teacher kept her friends for a lifetime
Barbara Edwards, 58, who grew up in Wyoming, near Grand Rapids, was a woman of character and warmth. She kept friends for a lifetime and, as a high school teacher, showed up at her students' soccer games on her own time.
"Barb was a people person," said her sister Jane Gollan of Seattle. "If you met her 30 years ago, she would still be friends with you. She had a knack for keeping in touch."
Edwards also was a fan of Bette Midler and of personal mementos like the 40-year-old accordion she had as a child. She never threw anything out, and her garage never had room for a car, family members said.
Edwards, who lived in Las Vegas, graduated from Kelloggsville High School in Grand Rapids in 1961 and from Western Michigan University in 1965. She worked for a time at Catholic Central High School in Grand Rapids. She also married, had three children and lived in various states before divorcing in the early 1990s.
She was a high school French and German teacher in Las Vegas when she went to a friend's wedding in Connecticut the weekend before the Sept. 11 attacks. She was supposed to return home, but friends convinced her to stay for a couple of days. She wound up on American Airlines Flight 77, which left Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington, and crashed into the Pentagon.
Just before the attacks, one of Edwards' sons had left a job as a broker in the World Trade Center. In addition to her children, Edwards' survivors include her parents, Jack and Liss Vander Baan, who live south of Grand Rapids in Allegan County; a sister, and two grandchildren.
Avid reader relished his Michigan roots
Brad Hoorn, 22, originally from Richland, near Kalamazoo, never lost his affection for his favorite childhood book, "Charlotte's Web." He learned to read using that book and he reread it periodically, said his mother, Kathy Hoorn of Richland. A voracious reader, Hoorn often read an entire book to relax before an important college exam, she said.
Bright, energetic and outgoing, Hoorn played several musical instruments; had been president of the National Honor Society at Gull Lake High School in Richland, from which he graduated in 1997, and cocaptain of the tennis team.
He was a computer whiz, his mother said, and loved coming back to Michigan from his New York City apartment to golf with his father, Dennis; play with the family's two Labrador retrievers; visit friends, and enjoy boating on lakes near the family home.
In May 2001, Hoorn received a bachelor's degree in economics from Yale University. On Sept. 11, he was working at Fred Alger Management Inc. on the 93rd floor of the north tower.
In addition to his parents, he is survived by a sister.
Consultant made her own way in the world
Suzanne Kondratenko, 27, formerly of Romeo, had such zeal and spark, her sister called her a spitfire. Patricia Kondratenko said Suzanne was creative, independent and had a daring sense of humor.
"Things she would say, other people wouldn't get away with," Patricia Kondratenko of Rochester said. She especially remembers Suzanne's beautiful skin and how she always smelled like flowers.
Kondratenko and her sisters -- all seven of them -- attended the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Bloomfield Hills. Suzanne graduated in 1992. In 1996, she earned a bachelor's degree in English literature and humanistic studies from St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Ind.
An employee of Keane Consulting in Chicago, Kondratenko was in New York on Sept. 11 to do consulting work for Aon Corp. on the 92nd floor of the trade center's south tower.
"Suzanne committed herself, entirely, to her every endeavor," said her sister Aimee Kondratenko of Chicago. "She was capable of so much."
She is survived by her sisters and her parents, Eric and Patricia Kondratenko, of Romeo.
Actress captivated by the allure of theater
Margaret Mattic, 51, knew by her senior year at Cass Tech High in Detroit that she wanted to be an actress and live in New York. She accomplished that goal, and more. Before she died, she was writing plays and planning to produce them, her sister, Jean Neal of Detroit, said.
"My earliest memories of Margaret are of her performing in school plays," said Peggy Robinson, who grew up with Mattic on Detroit's east side. "She was always the lead. I was a narrator. When we did 'Snow White,' she was Snow White. And she was Gretel when we did 'Hansel and Gretel.' "
Mattic also was adventurous, Neal said. "She did more traveling and living away from home. The rest of us remained in Detroit. Margaret lived in New Orleans and New York."
While Mattic was a student at Wayne State University, where she received a bachelor's degree in liberal arts in 1973, "she traveled to Europe for 8 weeks, all by herself," Neal said. "She had more nerve than all of us."
Mattic, the youngest of five children, always loved to read and write, said her mother, Katie Mattic of Detroit. As an adult, she bought dozens of books for herself and for her mother.
After graduating from Cass Tech in the late '60s, she appeared in several plays in Detroit and New York, particularly ones with African-American themes. Mattic worked as a customer service representative for General Telecom in the trade center's north tower.
She was single and had no children.
He was on way to a Hawaii honeymoon
Robert R. Ploger III, 59, of Annandale, Va., approached his life's work with a sense of adventure, said his father, Maj. Gen. Robert Ploger of Ann Arbor. He studied philosophy in college but wound up working with computers.
He worked for major corporations, established his own successful company and finally became a computer architect for Lockheed-Martin in Washington.
Ploger's parents -- his father is retired and his mother, Marguerite, is deceased -- were originally from Owosso. Their son graduated in 1959 from Paris American High School in France and attended Michigan State University in 1959-60. He served in the U.S. Army from 1960-62. Ploger then earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Denver in 1965, married and raised two children. He and his first wife, Sheila, later divorced.
Ploger had lived in California, Virginia and Maryland, working as a computer specialist.
He married his second wife, Zandra, in May 2001. On Sept. 11, they were on their way to Hawaii for a honeymoon. Both were aboard American Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon. A memorial service was held at the same hotel in Annandale where the couple celebrated their wedding.
Gentle giant won people over easily
David Pruim, 52, was "the kindest, nicest, most gentle, 6-foot-4 person there ever was," his wife of 28 years, Kate, told the New York Times shortly after his death. "He made everyone he came into contact with feel good about himself, from children to adults."
Pruim was senior vice president of risk services for Aon Corp., on the 103rd floor of the trade center's south tower.
The Pruims, both originally from Michigan, lived in Upper Montclair, N.J., with their 10-year-old daughter, Carrington. David was a 1966 graduate of Western Michigan Christian High School in Muskegon. He received a bachelor's degree in political science from Hope College in Holland in 1970.
Last October, the college dedicated its homecoming football game to Pruim.
He is survived by three brothers and his stepmother, Louise Pruim, who lives in Norton Shores. His late father, James Pruim, was mayor of Muskegon from 1994 to 1996.
Brilliant man had an empathetic ear
Josh Rosenthal, 44, was a brilliant guy with a big heart. He doted on his nieces and, despite a terrible allergy to cats, kept his Manhattan apartment window open to provide a scratching post for his neighbor's cats, his sister Helen Rosenthal recalled.
"He had this ability to reach in and really touch people and make them feel like he was truly listening and understanding what they were saying," she said.
Rosenthal was raised in Livonia and graduated from Stevenson High School in 1975. His mother, Marilynn Rosenthal of Ann Arbor, is a professor of behavioral sciences at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. His father, Avram (Skip) Rosenthal of Southfield, owns Books Abound in Farmington and is a former director of the Henry Ford Community College Library in Dearborn.
In 1979, Rosenthal earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science from the U-M in Ann Arbor. In 1977, he was named a Truman Scholar, a merit-based scholarship award given to outstanding college juniors.
In 1981, Rosenthal received a master's degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He moved to New York afterward, and on Sept. 11, was at work as senior vice president of Fiduciary Trust Co. on the 90th floor of the trade center's south tower.
Rosenthal lived in Manhattan, but stayed involved with family and friends in Michigan. He was godfather to several children of friends, his sister said.
"Josh had a large and wonderful family that he was very close to," his mother said.
Onetime star pitcher had new life with wife
Brock Safronoff, 26, originally from Traverse City, worked as a computer systems analyst for Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. on the 96th floor of the trade center's north tower. He was a 1993 graduate of Traverse City Central High School, where he had been a star pitcher for the baseball team.
In 1997, he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he also was a starting pitcher on the baseball team. Later, he finished course work toward a master's degree from Columbia University in New York.
Safronoff and his wife, Tara, were married in August 2001 on Staten Island. They had just moved to a Manhattan apartment before the Sept. 11 attacks. In addition to his wife, his survivors include his parents, Joel and Debra Safronoff of Traverse City; a brother, and a sister.
Military man had 2nd child on the way
Lt. Col. Kip Taylor, 38, originally from Marquette, came from a military family. He loved his job as an assistant to three-star Gen. Tim Maude at the Pentagon.
But at home, Taylor loved the gentler art of cooking. He especially loved trying out new recipes on unsuspecting visiting friends, his wife, Nancy, said.
Taylor also loved working with wood. He built a deck and worked on other projects at his McLean, Va., home. He had a 22-month-old son Dean. On Oct. 25, his wife gave birth to his second son, John Luke, who will be called Luke.
"He considered his most important role as that of father," his wife said. "We were both so excited about the baby."
In 1985, Taylor graduated from Northern Michigan University with a bachelor's degree in management. He had two scholarships, one for basketball and one for the ROTC program.
He died when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel from major posthumously, his wife said.
His survivors also include his mother, Kay Taylor, who is executive director of a child care referral agency in Marquette; a brother, also in the Army, and a sister. Taylor's late father, Don, was a retired Army lieutenant colonel who gave his son his commission in 1985 and later taught military science at Northern Michigan University.
Horse enthusiast coordinated show
Lisa Marie Terry, 42, of Oakland Township found time every summer, no matter how busy she was, to hold her Summer Sizzler Horse Show in Mt. Pleasant.
It was not an easy task for Terry to put on a quarter horse event while working full time with Marsh Inc., a national construction company with offices in Detroit and in the trade center's north tower. But horses were her passion.
"She did it all by herself," said Sarah Tupper of Metamora, Terry's best friend and fellow horse enthusiast. "She worked on it all year, getting sponsorships, making it nice for exhibitors. She made a huge effort to put stuff in the show people wanted."
Terry especially encouraged young exhibitors, Tupper said.
On Sept. 11, Terry, a vice president in charge of construction for the New York-based Marsh, was going to Hawaii for a project. She stopped at the World Trade Center for a business meeting and was among some 300 Marsh employees lost in the attacks, company officials said.
A couple of years before her death, Terry, who was single, celebrated her rise to vice president -- a rare position for women in her field -- by buying a red BMW convertible, said her aunt, Olga Stevens of Troy. Soon after, she bought her Oakland Township home.
Terry had one brother and grew up in Troy, graduating from Troy High School in 1977. She studied a social services program at Ferris State University from 1977 to 1980 and was a member of the Theta Tau Alpha sorority. She studied insurance at Michigan State University in the mid-1980s.
She loved skiing, flowers and her two cats. An accomplished horsewoman, she showed for the American and Michigan Quarter Horse associations. The latter named her Sportswoman of the Year in 1993.
Terry also was a member of the American Business Women's Association and the National Association of Women in Construction.
Flight attendant had the heart of a child
Alicia Nicole Titus, 28, whose parents live in Dexter, was a positive, peace-loving, let's-make-the-world-a-better-place kind of person.
"She was very much into acceptance of world cultures and . . . very embracing of people with different belief systems," said her father, John Titus. "So it is ironic, sadly so," he said, that she was a flight attendant on United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the trade center's south tower Sept. 11.
Titus had just become a flight attendant. Disillusioned with corporate life as a marketing director for a firm in San Francisco, where she lived, she switched careers, said her father, who is director of student advisement services at Schoolcraft College in Livonia. Alicia's mother, Beverly, teaches part-time at the college's Women's Resource Center and Continuing Education Department.
Titus grew up in St. Paris, Ohio. She graduated from Graham High School there in 1991 and earned a bachelor's degree in international business from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1995.
"She had lead roles in musicals in high school and was into track, cheerleading and National Honor Society," her father said.
She also loved outdoor sports such as snowboarding, mountain climbing and sky diving. She had traveled to Spain, Morocco, England and France.
Titus' roommate in San Francisco told her parents that the Sunday before the attacks, the two went to a local park, where they twirled hula hoops and played on the swings and slides -- typical of Titus' childlike zest for life, her father said.
Titus, who was single, also is survived by two brothers; a sister, and a nephew.
Recent graduate had energy, potential
Meredith Lynn Whalen, 23, who was originally from Canton Township, loved animals, particularly horses. She always wanted to own a horse, said her mother, Pat Whalenof Canton.
But Whalen valued friends most of all. Her mother was comforted by her daughter's friends after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Her friends have all described her as a very energetic, caring person with a lot of compassion for others," Pat Whalen said.
Whalen was just as energetic in high school. She was a varsity swimmer and in the National Honor Society at Plymouth Salem High School, from which she graduated in 1996. She earned a bachelor's degree in business administration with honors from the U-M in Ann Arbor in 2000.
"Meredith was an outstandinggraduate of our 2000 BBA program," said White, the U-M business professor and former interim president.
White said David Alger, another U-M graduate and World Trade Center victim, spotted Whalen as a young person with great potential and convinced her to work for his company.
She became a research assistant for Fred Alger Management on the 93rd floor of the trade center's north tower and lived in Hoboken, N.J.
She is survived by her mother; three sisters, and a brother. Her late father, Henry (Hank) Whalen, had been a Canton Township trustee.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan's 9/11 legacies: 16 terrorism victims with ties to the state
