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By Paul Carter
September 11th on Wall Street: Rodney Brady's Experience
NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- If ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock
Exchange was one of Rodney H. Brady's lifetime goals, he may have missed his
opportunity on Tuesday, September 11th. Brother Brady, who is a member of
the Salt Lake Emigration Stake, is known for having set 200 goals for
himself in high school and meeting 175 of them so far. (See On to the Goal:
Deseret Management's Rodney H. Brady http://www.mormon
stoday.com/010406/B3RBrady01.shtml ).
Mr. Brady is currently President and CEO of Deseret Management Corporation
which is the holding company for the for-profit corporations and business
interests of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He has served
as President of Bonneville International, which is the broadcasting company
of the Church and prior to that he was President of Weber State University
in Ogden Utah. Earlier, he worked for the company Bergen Brunswig for six
years.
At the moment when an airliner struck the first of the two World Trade
Center towers, Brady and associates of Bergen Brunswig were on the balcony
of the New York Stock Exchange, waiting for the nine o'clock hour at which
time Mr. Brady was to ring the bell that signals the opening of stock
trading for the day.
Mr. Brady recounts the events: "As the first passenger jet slammed into
building number one we heard the blast and felt the Stock Exchange Building
shake. As the second aircraft slammed into building number two, the sound of
the blast was perhaps five times louder and the Stock Exchange Building
shook so violently that we thought the building was about to collapse around
us."
Those on the balcony were moved to the trading floor and told not to go
outside due to the dangerous conditions and debris falling from the upper
stories of the towers. All watched the televisions in horror to see the
collapse of the World Trade Center Towers One and Two.
After waiting four hours on the trading floor, the group was told, according
to Brady, that they "could step out on the street and take our chances" to
attempt to get to their hotel. They were offered a bottle of water, wet
towels and a couple of dust masks as they left the building.
Meager protection for what they encountered.
"We saw people running east along Wall Street--some stumbling, some
hysterical, some calling for lost companions." Wall Street was filled with
metal and glass and all was covered with a deep, fine gray-white powder. The
air was still thick with dust and smoke.
As they worked their way to the hotel, the small group shared their masks,
water and towels with others they encountered along their way. They spent
the night, without electricity, in the hotel and then left on foot early
Wednesday morning to walk over three miles to a subway station to get a
train to take them under the Hudson River to an airport in New Jersey. They
left their luggage in New York.
When air restrictions began to be lifted on Thursday September 13th, the
group left New Jersey on an executive jet of Bergen Brunswig, which
deposited its occupants at small airports near each of their homes, since
the major airports had not yet reopened. Mr. Brady was delivered to Ogden
airport later that day.
He relates that throughout the ordeal, he found himself humming the hymn, "I
Know that My Redeemer Lives." Having been so very near to such massive
destruction and loss of life caused Brother Brady to reflect on his own
mortality and his own preparation "to take the inevitable step into the next
phase of my eternal progress, a step that everyone of us will take someday;"
preparation which he states is determined by the quality of one's
relationships to one's fellow man, family, and God.
He says, "This really caused me to reflect and place life into its true
perspective."
Sources:
He never rang the bell that fateful morning
LDS Church News 29Sep01 B2
By Jason Swensen: Church News staff writer
See also:
On to the Goal: Deseret Management's Rodney H. Brady
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