Looking back: Sept. 11, 2001

Five people with ties to West Milford were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. They continue to be remembered and mourned by people who knew them and by others who heard about them after the attacks.

Remembered too are the many West Milford first-responders who went to help at Ground Zero, the site of the collapsed World Trade Center towers in New York City. For days as they worked to find possible survivors, the volunteers breathed dangerous particles in the air that threatened their health then and in the future.

Also remembered are the actions of passengers on United Airlines Flight 93, which was flying from Newark Airport to San Francisco. The terrorists planned to use the plane as a weapon to crash it into the White House or Capitol in Washington.

Instead, a small number of brave men fought back and the plane crashed into a field in western Pennsylvania. Flight 93 is the only one of four planes hijacked by the terrorists that was stopped from reaching its target.

Jeremy Glick

Jeremy Glick, 31, of West Milford was a passenger on Flight 93. Published reports said that about 45 minutes into the flight, he called his wife, Lyz, on her cell phone and told her there were terrorists on the plane who had taken control.

Aware of the earlier attacks on the World Trade Center, Glick, Todd Beamer and other passengers had decided to act. He told Lyz to stay on the phone and she did so for 126 minutes, then gave the phone to her father and officials on the ground because she did not want to hear what finally happened.

Glick said he and the others joked about taking on the hijackers with butter knives from the airplane breakfast. Lyz told a reporter that her husband had sounded sad and scared but calm.

During the struggle for control of the plane, it rolled to the right and hit the ground at about 563 mph at a 40-degree nose-down angle. The black information boxes, buried 15 feet in the earth, were eventually recovered. The crash site was a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pa. All 33 passengers and seven crew members died along with four hijackers.

Glick was born Sept. 3, 1970, the middle child of Joan and Lloyd Glick of Hewitt. With his five siblings, all whose names started with “J,” he grew up in Saddle River. In seventh grade at Saddle River Day School, he met his future wife, Lyzabeth. They were high school sweethearts and were prom king and queen in 1988.

Glick was an American Collegiate Judo Champion while he was a student at the University of Rochester. He was captain of the rugby team and president of the Rochester chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. He graduated in 1993.

At the time of his death, he was a sales executive at Vividence, an e-consulting company in San Mateo. Calif.

The Glicks were married for five years. Their daughter Emerson, named in honor of her parent’s favorite poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, was born June 18, 2001, just three months before he boarded Flight 93 to attend a company sales meeting. He had been scheduled to go to California the previous day, but an airport fire required the change in flight.

Not long after the attack, West Milford Mayor Robert Moshman and others honored those killed in the attacks.

Glick posthumously was awarded the Medal for Heroism, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the Sons of the American Revolution.

With other passengers, he is memorialized at the Flight 93 National Memorial at the crash site in Pennsylvania and at the National 9/11 Memorial in New York.

Father Mychal Judge

Father Mychal Judge, a Franciscan Catholic priest, was serving as a chaplain to the New York City Fire Department when be became the first certified fatality of the attacks. He was 68.

He was born Robert Emmett Judge on May 11, 1933, in Brooklyn, the son of immigrants from County Leitrim, Ireland, and the firstborn of a pair of fraternal twins. His sister Dympna was born two days later. The twins and their older sister, Erin, grew up during the Great Depression.

Judge is buried at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Totowa, and there is a memorial for him at St. Joseph Cemetery in West Milford, where he had been the pastor. The memorial has a piece of steel from one of the World Trade Center towers.

Just 6 years old when his father died, he took his responsibility to help his mother and sisters seriously. He got a job at Penn Station shining shoes, running errands and doing odd jobs to help pay the bills.

He visited St. Francis of Assisi Church and after seeing the friars there, he wanted to become a priest. Judge studied under the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn and at age 15 he began the formation process to enter the Order of Friars Minor.

After graduation from St. Joseph’s Seraphic Seminary in Callicoon, N.Y., he enrolled at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, N.Y. In 1954, he was admitted to the novitiate of the province in Paterson and professed his first vows as a member of the order.

He was given the religious name of Fallon Michael, later dropped “Fallon” and still later changed his name spelling to Mychal to “differentiate himself from all the other Michaels.” He became a full member of the Franciscan religious order in 1958.

As chaplain to the New York City Fire Department, he offered encouragement and prayers at fires, rescues and hospitals. He counseled firefighters and their families, often working 16-hour days.

He was well-known in the city for ministering to the homeless, hungry, recovering alcoholics, people with AIDS, the sick and injured and grieving, immigrants, gays and lesbians, and those alienated from society. He once gave the winter coat off his back to a homeless woman in the street because “she needed it more than me.”

On Sept. 11, 2001, after learning the World Trade Center was hit by the first of two jetliners, Judge rushed to the site. He prayed over bodies lying in the streets, then entered the lobby of the North Tower, where there was an emergency post. He continued offering aid and prayers for the rescuers, injured and dead.

When the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m., debris flew through the North Tower Lobby, killing many, including Judge. It was assumed he had died as soon as he was hit by debris, but later it was determined that he had suffered a heart attack. His body was carried out of the North Tower and placed before the altar of St. Peter’s Catholic Church, then taken to Engine 1/Ladder Company 24.

Michael Zinzi

Michael Zinzi, 37, of Newfoundland worked full time at the Shulton Co. in Clifton while putting himself through Montclair State University at night to earn his degree in accounting.

He began working at Campos and Stratis in 1990 and later became a certified public accountant. In 1997, he started working at the firm RGL in Parsippany. In February 2001, his firm began working for Marsh & McLennan at One World Trade Center on the 100th floor.

Zinzi worked as vice president of the CAPS division of Marsh. It took him two hours to get to his desk each day and he never complained about that. He liked working in one of the highest locations in Manhattan.

He met his future wife, Dyan, also a Shulton Co. employee, when he worked there. They fell in love, were married and had a baby boy, Dean.

Zinzi was a motorcycle enthusiast and was proud of a 1956 K Model Harley he and his dad rebuilt. Dyan enjoyed riding motorcycles with her husband on their 1999 Heritage Soft-Tail Classic Harley Davidson, and they went on many road trips together. It was not long before she had her own motorcycle license.

Once they rode to Newport, R.I., and toured the Victorian mansions there. Coming back, they stopped at the Harley dealership in Connecticut, spotted an 883 Sportster Hugger and that became Dyan’s Christmas gift. They rode from Parsippany to Newark on a charity run just two days before the attack, their last charity ride together.

Dean’s birth on July 8, 2001, was the high point of Zinzi’s life. The last month was one of his happiest. In August, he attended his grandparents’ 59th anniversary dinner, where he got to see his family, including his father who came from out of town. He was so proud to introduce the family to his son Dean. Zinzi’s birthday was Sept. 2.

On Sept. 11, he awoke and got ready to leave for work. As usual, he kissed his wife and baby and drove off to catch the train to New York. He was at work when the highjacked plane hit the building. His son was just 9 weeks old.

Zinzi’s memorial headstone is in the St. Clare section of St. Joseph Cemetery.

Jean Caviasco DePalma

Jean Caviasco DePalma, 41, of Newfoundland was at her desk on the 100th floor of the World Trade Tower at 6:40 a.m. Sept. 11, 2001, when she sent an email to her brother.

She received her degree in accounting at Montclair State University and was employed at Marsh & McLennan. A single parent, she was the mother of two teenage children, Drew and Jamie.

She was the oldest of five children and grew up in Woodbridge. Her brothers and sisters often sought her advice.

She was a tireless volunteer at St. Joseph Church, where she served on the parish and parochial school committees.

A scholarship in her name was established at the school, which is now closed.

Timothy Hargrave

Timothy J. Hargrave, known as T.J.., and his six siblings were children of James V. and Kathryn Hargrave. They grew up on Germanton Road in the Echo Lake community.

He was an avid reader, aspiring writer and champion high school wrestler. At age 38, he was vice president at the Cantor Fitzgerald financial firm with an office on the 100th floor of the North Tower.

He was speaking on the phone with his wife, Patty, when a hijacked plane hit the tower. He told her things looked bad, then his phone was cut off and she did not hear his voice again. His body was not recovered.

Hargrave is remembered in memorials in many places, but his late mother said the family felt especially close to him when they came to the 9/11 Memorial at the park in front of West Milford Town Hall.

Hargrave went to DePaul High School in Wayne where he met Patty. They were raising their three daughters at their home in Southwest Jersey when he was killed. Amy was 4 years old; Casey was 6 and Corrine was 8 at that time.

He became a child actor in television commercials when he was only 6 years old. He was in the cast of the soap opera “The Guiding Light,” creating and playing the role of T.J. Werner from 1974 to 1976.

He was in the film “Nicky” in 1971. In “The Prince of Central Park,” a film for television in 1977, he had the lead role of J.J., a restless Manhattan orphan. Brooke Shields and Ruth Gordon were also in the movie.

People in the Echo Lake community remember seeing Kathryn Hargrave take her son to New York City for his acting jobs.