7 minute read
9/11: 20 Years Later
▶ Retired FDNY firefighter and 9/11 first responder Rob Serra ’01 touches one of the six stone monoliths at the 9/11 Memorial Glade in New York.
◀ IN MEMORIAM
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In September, the Kappa Alpha Society placed 2,977 flags on the Quad in honor of those killed in the 2001 attacks, including 548 people from countries around the world. Among the lives lost on 9/11 were three HWS graduates who worked in the World Trade Center at the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald: Andrew H. Golkin ’93, Scott W. Rohner ’01 and Michael J. Simon ’83, P’11, P’13. A memorial plaque honoring Golkin, Rohner and Simon is a fixture in the vestibule at the Abbe Center for Jewish Life.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
20 Years Later
BY NATALIA ST. LAWRENCE ’16
Rob Serra ’01 was crossing the Verrazano Bridge, on his way to try out for the New York City firefighters’ hockey team, when he saw smoke rising from the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Brand new to the FDNY, Serra had completed his training less than 24 hours earlier and expected to have the day off, but he grabbed his gear and headed downtown.
Even though it was his first official day as a firefighter, Serra says “it never crossed my mind not to go.” The day changed his life forever.
“Pretty much as soon as I got down there, I started to bleed from my nose,” he remembers.
Like thousands of first responders, emergency workers and civilians who survived the attacks, Serra was exposed to toxic ash and debris on Sept. 11 and in the months following, when he worked at the Staten Island recovery site searching for the personal effects of victims. He has had surgery to remove nasal polyps and still faces neurological damage, including neuropathy and fibromyalgia, which cause intense bouts of shaking, nerve pain and trouble walking.
The September 11 Victim Compensation Fund was established to expand health coverage and compensation to first responders and individuals who developed health problems related to the attacks; however, after renewals in 2011 and 2015, the VCF ran out of funds to pay all filed and projected claims in 2019. continue reading >>
“We knew the Victim Compensation Fund was not adequately funded,” says Serra, who has been an outspoken advocate for the VCF. As early as 2015, he and a coalition of first responders began making monthly visits to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. “We never stopped working. And during that time, we dealt with a lot of loss.”
To bring attention to the health crisis affecting first-responders and to amplify the voices of those who need care, Serra has shared his story with major news outlets, from The New York Times to CBS, Fox News to ESPN.
“I don’t necessarily feel comfortable talking about my health, but I knew it was something I needed to do,” Serra says. “Fortunately, I was an English major at the Colleges and I was able to tell our story.”
In 2019, as the nation watched the unfolding testimony in support of the VCF play out on television, Serra sat in the first row of the Capitol chamber. There, he says, the “two most pivotal moments came when people heard the testimonies of retired NYPD detective Luis Alvarez and [comedian and commentator] Jon Stewart.” After many years of loss and frustration, the advocacy of people like Alvarez and Stewart and the attention and support of the public propelled the resolution through Congress.
On July 29, 2019, President Trump signed into law H.R. 1327, The Never Forget the Heroes: James Zadroga, Ray Pfeifer, and Luis Alvarez Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.
Serra, a father of three and member of the Board of Directors of the Ray Pfeifer Foundation, continues to advocate for Sept. 11 first responders — and ensure their stories are heard. In 2020, he celebrated his 40th birthday at a Pfeifer Foundation fundraiser for a wheelchairaccessible van to transport Sept. 11 survivors to their medical appointments. This year, after his 12-year-old daughter interviewed him about the 20th anniversary of the attacks for her social studies class, Serra wrote on Twitter: “The most important 9/11 interview I’ve done.”
▲ Spates on the Long Island Ferry during an early iteration of the “Two Cities” course.
TWO CITES RETURNS
In the fall of 2022, Spates, Professor Emeritus Pat McGuire and Professor Emerita JoBeth Mertens will lead a reprisal of “Two Cities.” Stay tuned for details.
DISTINGUISHED FACULTY AWARD
A 43-Year Masterpiece
BY NATALIA ST. LAWRENCE ’16
Nineteenth century social critic, artist and early sociologist John Ruskin once wrote, “When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.”
Professor Emeritus of Sociology James L. Spates P’00, P’09, a leading Ruskin scholar, has invested decades of love and skill in the education of HWS students, and for his excellence in teaching and influential scholarship, the Hobart Alumni Association and William Smith Alumnae Association honored Spates with the Distinguished Faculty Award in June.
“Ruskin, to me, talked about the most important things in life and I wanted to share with my students these thoughts, so that those important things in life become part of their thought process as well,” Spates said at the virtual award ceremony during Reunion weekend. “One of the wonderful things about teaching at Hobart and William Smith is that you get to teach the things that you think are important — things that you think will help your students the most…My students, bless them, always were aching to learn.”
Spates joined the faculty in 1971, and for 43 years led students through the texts and ideas that shape sociology and urban studies, exploring what informs social values and peering into human nature. With Professor Emeritus and Former Interim President Patrick A. McGuire L.H.D. ’12, Spates redefined the boundaries of the classroom with “Two Cities,” the course that brought students to New York City and Toronto to analyze urban life at “street-level” through a bidisciplinary lens.
McGuire, who joined Spates in conversation in June, said the course was “one of the greatest experiences of my life.” When McGuire thought something was impossible, he said, Spates was always willing “to do things differently, to challenge students in different environments.”
During the DFA presentation, Michael Gantcher ’92 recalled how Spates “challenged my assumptions in the first minutes of the first class of this new school year! I had no idea at the time that I was meeting a man who would not only teach me what great teachers can do, and how they can change your whole life, but a man who would become one of my best friends, a man who would never stop teaching me and challenging me…a man who has been a consistent, supportive and loving presence in the life of my family for over 30 years.”
Alums who nominated Spates for the DFA all underscored his profound influence as a teacher and mentor who shaped their thinking, their love of learning and their responsibility as citizens.
Lindsey Kent ’14, a two-time teaching fellow for Spates, says he had a “monumental” impact on her life. After taking his introductory sociology course, she says, “I knew then I had a responsibility to do good in the world and help other people. Professor Spates helped me become a leader and forge my own path post-college.”
For Lynne Harris Bernstein ’86, Spates “was an inspiring mentor whose passion and energy opened new worlds and ways of thinking to his students. He was exemplary of the kind of teacher one imagines you will experience at a small liberal arts college — caring, creative and fully engaged in students’ learning.”
Dan Kresge ’90 remembers “arguing with [Spates] in class about a point he had made. He permitted and perhaps even goaded me into an argument, and I came away thinking I’d won. Being a professor myself, it’s now clear that moment laid the foundation for my intellectual ‘self-esteem.’”
As Spates himself said, “that’s what being a professor is all about: that you tried to teach them how to be independent thinkers, independent learners, and that you made a good and positive difference in their lives.”
McGuire (left), Spates (right) and the 1995 "Two Cities" class at the Toronto home of urbanist Jane Jacobs (center). ▼
AT A GLANCE
Spates earned an early promotion to full professor in 1984 and was the first faculty member named the Classes of 1964 Endowed Chair. He received more than a dozen Faculty Research Grants during his tenure, as well as awards for his contributions to the curriculum and to the HWS community.
In retirement, he continues his Ruskin scholarship, following his 2006 book, The Imperfect Round: Helen Gill Viljoen’s Life of Ruskin, with a new manuscript, “Availing Toward Life: The Radical Social Thought of John Ruskin.” Spates is also turning his expertise on social and city life to downtown Geneva, N.Y. He led the revitalization of the Dove Block, the historic former home of renowned painter Arthur Dove, Hobart Class of 1903.
