On a beautiful blue sky morning seven years later, Montclair residents took time out from their hectic daily schedules to gather at the plaza below the Watchung Train Station to reflect on an earlier late-summer day with spectacular azure skies — a morning when family members, neighbors and friends lost their lives.
Nearly 200 residents joined local officials and members of Montclair’s uniformed police and fire services in what many of them described as "brief but moving ceremonies" to remember the thousands of innocent victims of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
"On September 11, 2001, our lives were changed forever," Deputy Mayor Roger S. Terry told the gathering.
"The tragedy of the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon is one that we will never forget," Terry said. "2,974 people were killed, 2,603 of them in the World Trade Center, and of the 24 from the North Essex area, nine from Montclair.
"And, in the aftermath of that attack, we were a community that shared one identity, and that was American," Terry said.
Terry, who spoke from a podium in front of Montclair’s 9/11 Memorial, was flanked by members the Montclair Police Department Honor Guard, bagpipe players and representatives of the Montclair Fire Department. Also present were Township Council members Renée Baskerville, Cary Africk, Nick Lewis and Rich Murnick, who had at his side his neighbor of many years, Jennifer Harvey. Harvey lost her husband in the World Trade Center on 9/11.
"Today we take pause to pray, to remember and pay tribute to the brave men and women who are forever etched in our hearts," Terry said. "As we remember those who demonstrated great courage on that day and those that we lost, I’d like us to also remember something else.
"The irony of that moment of truth, that irony is that our differences make us unique, but it’s the things we share in common that make us special."
Terry’s comments were followed by the solemn ringing of the ceremonial Montclair Fire Department bell which is struck in memory of firefighters lost in the line of duty.
During this ceremony, it was rung in memory of the Montclair residents or natives who lost their lives on 9/11.
The group includes Michael Collins, Caleb Arron Dack, Emeric Harvey, Scott M. Johnson, Howard L. Kestenbaum, Robert Murach, David L. Pruim, Ron Ruben and Michael Stewart.
Their names are inscribed on the plaque that was placed in the memorial in the Watchung Plaza Park that municipal officials dedicated shortly after the 9/11 tragedy.
On the seventh anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, many Montclair residents paused at that same memorial to place a flower or garland, to say a silent prayer, or linger for a moment of thought and meditation.
For Jennifer Harvey, Montclair’s low-key ceremony is still meaningful years later. Noting that some local families of 9/11 victims participate in the events at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, Harvey explained that she finds comfort with her neighbors in Montclair.
"It’s nice to see that I’m not alone and that the town still comes out and supports the members of the families" Harvey noted.
To make sure that the support continues, Murnick suggested that local schools might delay the opening of classes each year on Sept. 11 so that the young people can attend and observe the memorial ceremonies. "It will help bring to life what they learn about 9/11 in the classroom," he said.
Montclair’s sense of community and the importance it places on neighbors also figured prominently in Terry’s remarks.
"In memory of those we honor here today, let us also commit ourselves to working to acknowledge our differences, but work even harder to build on the common things that bind us together as a town, as a community, and as a people," Terry said. "May God continue to bless America."
