NEW BOSTON, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – When Frank Doyle called his wife on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, he knew something was terribly wrong.
The 39-year-old grew up in New Boston, Michigan, before settling in New Jersey with his wife, Kimmy Chedel, and their two young children, Garrett and Zoe, who were just two and one years old at the time of the attack. Doyle was head of equity trading for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, whose offices were high in the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
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After terrorists struck the North Tower, Doyle called his wife. He told her he had to stay to help others. Then United Airlines Flight 175 slammed into the South Tower.
Doyle called home again. He and others were trapped.
According to an interview with Toronto City News, Kimmy said, “He was very calm. He says ‘I need you to listen to me carefully. I’ve been up to the rooftop. And the rooftop doors are locked. We’re trapped on the 87th floor and it’s getting difficult to breathe.’”
Kimmy went on to say, “I could hear lots of voices. I could hear shuffling and coughing. I could hear the glass breaking. I could assume it was for the fire extinguisher. And he said ‘I know you know this, but I love you sweetie and I need you to promise me to tell Zoe and Garrett every day how much their papa loves them…but right now I need your help. You need to call 911 and you need to tell them that we’re trapped on the 87th floor.’”
He never came home.
His wife remembered that even in his final moments, Doyle was thinking about the people around him. “Up to the last minute of his life, he was a team player,” she said.
42 Michigan Lives
Twenty-five years later, Doyle is one of the 42 victims with Michigan connections being remembered by the Michigan Remembers 9-11 Fund. They were sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers. Some were born here. Others grew up here, attended Michigan schools or formed other close connections to the state.
Among them was Flint native Todd Beamer, whose “Let’s roll” became a lasting symbol of the passengers who fought back against the terrorists aboard United Flight 93 before it crashed in Pennsylvania.
But there are 41 other Michigan-connected names – people like Doyle – whose stories may be far less familiar.
That is precisely why Patrick Anderson wants them remembered. Anderson is a World Trade Center survivor and founder of the Michigan Remembers 9-11 Fund.
“For the past quarter century, we have strived to keep alive the memory of each person with ties to Michigan who lost their life on September 11, 2001,” Anderson said in a statement on the website. “We remain committed to sharing their names and stories, and to denying the attackers’ desire to erase them from history.”
Remembering the Day – and the People – by Those Who Knew and Loved Them
Anderson doesn’t have to read a history book to understand September 11th. The East Lansing businessman was staying at the Marriott World Trade Center for a conference when the attacks began. He escaped with a co-worker as the towers came down around him. Later, he started his organization.
And in the aftermath of her husband’s death, Kimmy Chedel helped turn Frank Doyle’s memory into a lasting legacy. In May 2002, she and family and friends created Team Frank in his honor, with more than 200 people since taking part in athletic challenges around the world. The effort later grew into Team Frank Africa, a charity dedicated to building schools in remote areas of South Africa – carrying Frank’s name and memory forward by helping others.
Memorials Around the State.
In addition to maintaining the biographies of Michigan’s 42 victims, there is also an interactive map on the website identifying 38 known 9/11 memorials and markers across Michigan including in the cities of Traverse City, Lansing, Brighton, Pontiac, Cheboygan, and Marquette.
25 Years Later.
A quarter-century has now passed. Millions of Americans alive today weren’t born when the towers fell. Others were too young to remember the smoke rising over Manhattan, the Pentagon burning or the empty Pennsylvania field where Flight 93 came down.
For them, Sept. 11 can easily become another chapter in a history book. For families like Frank Doyle’s, it never will.
Behind the number of nearly 3,000 are individual lives – people who went to work, boarded airplanes, kissed their families goodbye and expected to come home.
Forty-two of those lives have ties to Michigan.
Twenty-five years later, Michigan remembers their names – and the families who never stopped missing them.
