Videos of the speakers for IUP's 2019 September 11 Remembrance Ceremony are now available on the IUP YouTube channel.
The program featured Chris Noah, IUP chief marketing officer who was present in New York City at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks; IUP's Director of Public Safety and Police Kevin Thelen; IUP President Michael Driscoll; and Laurie Frisina Kuzneski, of Indiana, a 1993 IUP graduate and member of the IUP Council of Trustees, who served as master of ceremonies.
The program was held at the university's September 11 memorial in the Oak Grove, located between Sutton Hall and Stapleton Library. The memorial includes a 13-foot remnant of the World Trade Center, on long-term loan to the university from the Kovalchick family, of Indiana.
The annual event is designed as an opportunity to reflect on and mark the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The program includes a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Music was performed by the IUP Wind Ensemble under the direction of Timothy Paul, director of bands.
The event also included a remembrance of the three IUP alumni lost in the World Trade Center attacks: William Moskal, a 1979 graduate; Donald Jones, a 1980 graduate; and William Sugra, a 1993 graduate.
Jones and Sugra worked for Cantor Fitzgerald in the north tower of the World Trade Center. Jones was a bond broker from Bucks County. Sugra lived in Manhattan and worked for e-Speed, Cantor Fitzgerald's electronic trading unit. Sugra's family, of Allentown, established a memorial scholarship in his honor for an IUP student from Allentown majoring in finance.
Moskal, a safety sciences graduate and Johnstown native, was a risk consultant for Marsh and McLennan in Cleveland, specializing in heavy construction. He was in New York on September 11, 2001, for a meeting at the World Trade Center.
Members of IUP's ROTC Color Guard presented and retired the colors. Color Guard members selected to participate in the ceremony were Juan Gonzalez, an accounting and management information systems major from Kennett Square; Christian Holland, a history major from Hummelstown; Eric Kinderman, a supply chain management major from Mt. Lebanon; Lucas Kovach, an energy geotechnology major from Lehighton; and Sean Stirling, an environmental planning and engineering major from Kittanning.