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Remembering the Victims

More than 150 Connecticut residents or people with ties to Connecticut died on Sept. 11, 200l after the two hijacked jetliners flew into the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center, including people who lived in southeastern Connecticut and along the Connecticut shoreline.

• Dianne Bullis Snyder left her home in Westport, Mass., very early in the morning on Sept. 11, 2001, to get to Logan International Airport. The 42-year-old was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11. She was married to New London native John Snyder, who lived in the city until he was 10, when his family of two parents and 11 children moved to Madison, which was Dianne’s hometown. The Snyders had two children.

• Four-year-old Juliana McCourt and her mother, Ruth, were passengers on United Flight 175 from Boston that crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center. The two, who lived on Pequot Avenue in New London, were flying from Boston to California, where they planned to go to Disneyland, among other activities. Ruth’s good friend Paige Farley-Hackel, a Boston resident, was aboard the other jetliner that crashed into the Twin Towers. Although they were on different flights, Ruth, who was 45, Juliana and Paige were making the trip to the West Coast together.

• James A. Greenleaf Jr. was a graduate of St. Bernard High School in Montville and of Connecticut College. The 32-year-old seemed to thrive in Manhattan, where he had run the New York City Marathon and was building a career in finance. He was working as a foreign currency trader for Carr Futures and was in the north tower, where the first jet hit. He is survived by a brother and his parents, who live in Waterford.

• Marilyn Thorpe and her husband, Raymond, of Mystic, lost their son Eric “Rick” Thorpe, who worked for an investment firm in the World Trade Center.

• Joshua M. Piver was on the 105th floor of the north tower when the first jetliner hit. Only 23, he was fairly new to Manhattan, where he’d gotten a job with Cantor Fitzgerald, trading pollution credits. Born and raised in Stonington, Josh graduated from Stonington High and the University of Vermont.

• James Hobin, a native of New London, was 47 when he died at the WTC. A resident of Marlborough, where he lived with his wife and two sons, he was a vice-president of risk management at Marsh & McLennan in Hartford. He was in the company’s Manhattan offices for his once-a-month meeting there when the attacks occurred.

• Only days away from his 32nd birthday in September 2001, Eric Brian Evans had done well working in Manhattan, where he was with Aon, a risk management, reinsurance and consulting firm. He was born in Norwich, where his parents still lived after their five sons had grown. Shortly before his death, Eric had been telling friends and family that he was considering moving back to Connecticut, perhaps to Old Saybrook, to make a home there with his girlfriend of two years.

• According to The Hartford Courant, another victim with area ties include Edward Vanacore, 29, formerly of North Haven. “Vanacore, who grew up in North Haven and had lived in Jersey City, N.J., for six years, took a job as a stock analyst with Fiduciary Trust International in the World Trade Center six weeks ago. He had left the south tower where he worked after the jet smashed into the north tower, but returned to his 94th-floor office after security workers gave the go-ahead to return to work. He was last seen in the stairwell of the 78th floor. Vanacore was the youngest of six children and graduated from North Haven High School and Boston College.”

• The late William A. Todd, of Norwich, knew that his daughter Madeline Amy Todd Sweeney was a hero. A flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, she was able to report during the hijacking some of what was happening on the jetliner and about the landscape below after the plane was diverted from its flight pattern to Los Angeles. Her reports have been credited with helping officials make the decision to ground all flights on Sept. 11, perhaps saving many lives. Today there is the annual Madeline Amy Todd Sweeney Award for Civilian Bravery, to be given every year to a Massachusetts resident who exemplifies the courage she displayed. Madeline lived in Acton, Mass., with her husband, Mike, and their two young children.