Features: September 11

Among the nearly 3,000 people who died in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were six alumni—young professionals and retirees, new parents and grandparents, volunteers and heroes.

Across campus, they’re remembered with a set of memorials. On the plaza outside Meliora Hall, a plaque and benches reminds those who pause of what the community lost that day. Similarly, there are plaques in Gleason Hall and in the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity house. Most important, the alumni are remembered in the hearts of classmates, community members, and friends.

With this year’s 20th anniversary of that dreadful day, we mark their lives and imagine how different their days might have been.

Brendan Dolan ’86
A quarterback on the Yellowjackets football team, a rugby player, and the social chairman for the Psi Upsilon fraternity, Dolan was the second in his family of five to go to Rochester. He followed his brother Charles Dolan ’85.

A senior vice president at Carr Futures, Dolan was a successful energy broker who traveled the world for clients whom he just as often considered friends. He was at work in the North Tower when the attacks took place.

On September 11, he left behind his wife, Stacey, and two daughters.

Jeremy Glick ’93
Glick, a sales and marketing executive on United Airlines Flight 93, is believed to have been one of several passengers to counterattack the hijackers, forcing the plane to crash in rural Pennsylvania. He left behind his wife, Lyzbeth, and their newborn daughter.

His bravery earned him two posthumous honors: the Arthur Ashe Courage Award and the Medal for Heroism, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the Sons of the American Revolution.

An English major, Glick was president of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. His fraternity brothers helped establish the Jeremy L. Glick Memorial Scholarship Fund—awarded to recognize Rochester Greek system students for their leadership. On campus, a carving of a wooden yellowjacket is dedicated to his memory.

In 2019, Glick’s legacy was celebrated when he was inducted posthumously into the Rochester area’s Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Aram Iskenderian ’82
A vice president in global risk management at Cantor Fitzgerald, Iskendrian was working in the financial services firm’s headquarters at the top of One World Trade Center on September 11.

An optics major at Rochester, Iskenderian was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. After graduation, he married his high school sweetheart, Sheri, and the couple had four children.

Jean Hoadley Peterson ’69N
As a nursing student, Peterson would return to the hospital after hours just to say hello to patients she had seen earlier in the day. Many years later, the mother of six was an emergency medical technician, led Bible studies, traveled on overseas missions, lent money to families in need, and offered help to people with drug and alcohol addiction and to pregnant women in crisis.

Peterson and her husband, Donald, were on United Airlines Flight 93, on their way to an annual family reunion at Yosemite National Park.

Jeffrey Smith ’87, ’88S (MBA)
An equity research analyst at the investment banking firm of Sandler O’Neill and Partners, Smith spent as much time as he could with his family—his wife Ellen Bakalian and their two daughters—traveling, hiking, sailing, and simply being together.

At Rochester, Smith played varsity football and was a member of the Debate Union. He graduated with a degree in political science and earned an MBA from the Simon Business School. After graduation, he was a volunteer with the University’s career services program.

With a goal of a career on Wall Street, in 1996, Smith joined Sandler O’Neill, where he worked in the company’s South Tower headquarters.

Zhe (Zack) Zeng ’95, ’98S (MBA)
Trained as an emergency medical technician, Zeng was seen by several witnesses—including a TV crew—going into the World Trade Center to offer aid to the injured.

Still wearing the suit he wore as a project manager for the Bank of New York, he was in the second tower when it fell.

Zeng was an electrical engineering major as an undergraduate and later earned an MBA from the Simon Business School.

To honor Zeng’s heroism, the New York City Council renamed a street after him in the Chinatown area of Manhattan. The street, known as Zhe (Zack) Zeng Way, borders a park where Zeng used to meet friends. And in 2016, the ambulance service of the Rochester suburb of Brighton, where Zeng had been an EMT, dedicated an ambulance in his honor.