The 25^th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was remembered across campus last Friday with the ringing of the Old Chapel bells, a quiet rededication of a memorial for a lost colleague and alumnus, and an annual stair climb by the university ROTC, local first responders and members of the university community at McGuirk Stadium.

Minuteman Battalion Remembrance Climb

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The remembrances began at dawn, when the Minuteman Battalion Army ROTC conducted its annual 9/11 Remembrance Climb, which pays tribute to the courage, selfless service and sacrifice of the first responders, military and civilians that gave their lives on Sept. 11, 2001.

Each year members of the UMass community join local first responders, and members of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, ROTC and Junior ROTC programs, and veterans’ organizations at McGuirk Alumni Stadium, where they run 110 flights of stairs to commemorate the height of the former World Trade Center in New York.

This year saw over 150 participants climb the stadium’s stairs to pay tribute to those lost in Lower Manhattan that morning in reflection of the event’s motto: “We climb in their honor. We remember with gratitude. We will never forget.”

The tolling of the Burden Bell

Later Friday morning, the Burden Bell, the largest bell in Old Chapel’s Carillon, was tolled for two minutes at a slow, measured pace at 8:46 a.m., 9:03 a.m., 9:45 a.m., and 10:10 a.m., marking the times of the attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the crash of United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.

The ringing of the bell in memory of the attacks is a tradition carried on each year by Richard Nathhorst, research facilities manager in research and engagement. Nathhorst, who was recently honored for his 50 years of service to the university, has rung the commutation for 25 years and believes the university will commemorate this memorial in perpetuity.

“I was at work here at UMass Amherst when the 9/11 attacks happened and I remember the day very clearly,” he says. “I remember the F-16s heading south at high speed with air-to-air missiles on their wings and the sky otherwise clearing of air traffic and the cell phone lines being jammed. Life changed for all of us that day and a new generation understood how people felt after the Pearl Harbor attack.”

Nathhorst says that he is proud to toll the bells in remembrance each year, and that the anniversary is observed annually by a few people who gather on benches along the campus pond in front of Old Chapel as “the Old Chapel Bells, the voice of the university, sound to acknowledge the day and its lost university community memories.”

UMass IT remembers Christoffer Carstanjen

Finally, UMass Amherst IT honored the memory of Christoffer “Chris” Carstanjen on Friday with a re-dedication of his memorial stone in the new pollinator garden at its Venture Way headquarters.

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An alumnus and computer research specialist in what was then the Office of Information Technologies (OIT), Carstanjen was 33 years old when he was among those killed aboard United Airlines Flight 175.

Born in Stamford, Connecticut, he went to Housatonic Valley Regional High School and Paul Smith’s College and later earned a degree from UMass Amherst’s University Without Walls. At the time of his death, Carstanjen was traveling to California to join fellow motorcycle enthusiasts for a ride along the Pacific Coast.

Joanne Martone, IT business continuity and service delivery manager, worked with Carstanjen and shared an office with him. She remembers that he “was always happy to learn and share anything he knew.”

Marcellette G. Williams, interim chancellor at the time, said, “Christoffer’s sense of the human dimension of technology is one of the many enduring gifts he has given OIT.”

The stone will remain in the new garden as an enduring reminder of a UMass colleague whose life and contributions are still felt 25 years later.

In total, UMass Amherst lost 10 alumni in the terrorist attacks.