Clarkson University to hold 9/11 remembrance ceremony Sept. 9 at World Trade Center Memorial on campus
Monday, September 5, 2011 - 8:13 am
POTSDAM – Clarkson University will hold a 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony Friday, Sept. 9 at 8:30 a.m. at the World Trade Center Memorial (near the Townhouse Apts.).
The public is invited to hear speakers including Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations Steve Newkofsky and President Tony Collins.
The Army & Air Force ROTC Color Guard will present and the Golden Knotes (student a cappella group) will perform.
Local emergency responders and veterans have been invited.
The day of the World Trade Center collapse, Clarkson alumnus Michael Bielowa'85 was called to ground zero to supervise the clean-up efforts.
He worked on ground zero for three weeks, effectively clearing the debris and helping to recover survivors.
After his first-hand experience with the September 11th disaster, he requested that the New York City Office of Emergency Management donate steel from the World Trade Center to Clarkson to be used for a memorial.
Several years of planning and fund-raising led to the installation of a memorial in the summer of 2005 and dedicated on Oct. 14, 2005.
This site was dedicated as a memorial to the four alumni's lives lost in the World Trade Center attacks.
Each of the four alumni's names, Peter A. Klein '87, Paul R. Hughes '85, Richard J. O'Connor '75, and R. Mark Rasweiler '70, is engraved above a light installed in the foundation of the structure, and at night the lights shine up on the structural beams.