The Georgetown community suffered many losses as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Eleven Hoya alumni who lost their lives. Here are their stories:
Joseph P. Shea (MSB ‘76): A Lifelong Hoya
Joseph P. Shea (MSB ‘76) was a dedicated Hoya and always looked to give back to Georgetown.
According to his wife Nancy Shea, her husband’s Georgetown experience was “one of the highlights of Joe’s life.” He made many close friends at the University and continued an active relationship with a number of his classmates. (Ambien) His wife said the couple attended several class reunions over the years.
Shea was a remarkably active alumnus. Not only did he fund an athletic scholarship and act as a mentor for business school students, but he also conducted alumni interviews as part of the University admissions process. This coming year, Shea would have been an area coordinator for Georgetown applicant interviews in the New York region.
According to his wife, Shea was a strong athlete. He played golf and ice hockey and also ran regularly. He coached baseball, hockey and basketball teams for his children. He leaves behind three sons?Patrick, 14, Peter, 12, Danny, 12?and a daughter, Catherine, 10.
Shea served as an executive managing director at Cantor Fitzgerald, located in the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
While employed at Cantor Fitzgerald, Shea worked to transform the company’s trading operations from a telephone-based system to an online-based system. Shea started as a bond broker. According to his wife, Shea attributed his business success to his Georgetown education.
Shea came to work on the 105th Floor at his usual starting time, 7:15 a.m., on Sept. 11.
“He was a man of tremendous integrity,”Nancy Shea said of her husband.
Lisa J. Raines (LAW ‘82): Dedicated Public Servant
Like many Georgetown students, Lisa J. Raines (LAW ‘82) had a strong interest in government. And like many Jesuits, she had a strong interest in helping people.
A senior vice president for governmental relations at the Genzyme Corporation, a biotechnology company, Raines dedicated herself to improving the country’s health care system.
Raines was instrumental in the shaping of the relationship between the biotechnology industry and the government. “She had an important role in all of the major legislation affecting the industry in the last 15 years,” said Bo Piela, company spokesman.
Piela said that Raines was known for her ability to forge compromises and achieve legislative solutions. “She had a great deal of passion and energy for what she did,” said Piela.
Raines helped spur the passage of the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997 and helped develop a new FDA policy regarding cellular therapies.
Raines was a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which hijackers smashed into the Pentagon Sept. 11.
Raines leaves behind her husband, Stephen Push, a former vice president of corporate communications for the company.
“She was an incredibly kind-hearted, thoughtful and loving individual,” her brother Thomas said.
Raines had been an employee at Genzyme since 1993. Her family and friends are setting up a scholarship in her memory at Georgetown.
Stephen Cangialosi (CAS ‘83): Dedicated Family Man
This past month would have made Stephen Cangialosi (CAS ‘83) very happy, as October probably had for the past three years. The New York Yankees are pursuing their fourth World Series Crown and hope to become world champions for the fourth consecutive year since 1997.
“He’s a great Yankee fan,” said his father, Thomas Cangialosi (MED ‘59), himself a Georgetown alumnus, along with brother Thomas (CAS ‘79) and sister Elizabeth (CAS ‘79)
Unfortunately, the tragic events of Sept. 11 cut short the life of a dedicated baseball fan and, more importantly, a dedicated family man. Cangialosi worked as a municipal bond broker for Cantor Fitzgerald, in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. And while hijackers crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower 18 minutes after the first attack, the South Tower collapsed first.
Cangialosi’s father tried contacting his son but, like so many worried family members that day trying to reach loved ones, he was unsuccessful.
A resident of Middletown, N.J., Cangialosi was active in the community. He served on the Board of Directors of the Middletown Little League and coached Little League for 10-to-12 year olds.
“He lived for his boys,” his father said. Cangialosi leaves behind two sons, Porter, 10, and Jeffrey, 7, as well as his wife Katherine.
He also remained close to his Georgetown friends. According to his father, Cangialosi was part of a close-knit group from college that tried to get together two to three times each year. The group lived as far south as Atlanta and Florida.
Until a year ago, Cangialosi worked for Municipal Partners, a New York City-based municipal bond group, which was taken over by Cantor Fitzgerald. As a result, Cangialosi was transferred to the South Tower of the World Trade Center, where he was working until Sept. 11.
Residents of Legg Mason, N.J., where Cangialosi was planning on moving in October, are setting up an educational fund, the Cangialosi Children’s College Bound Fund, to benefit Cangialosi’s two sons.
Matthew G. Leonard (CAS ‘84)
Matthew G. Leonard (CAS ‘84) was working as a director of litigation for Cantor Fitzgerald in the South Tower of the World Trade Center Sept. 11.
Colleagues said they remember him as a caring figure who could always be counted upon to help others.
As a lawyer, he had an extensive history of doing pro-bono work. While a student at Columbia Law School, he interned at MFY Legal Services a New York organization that provides legal assistance to the city’s underprivileged. He primarily worked to assist poor Chinatown residents. Leonard continued to serve on the board of MFY Legal Services for over a decade following his internship.
The morning of Sept. 11, he arrived at work early. His wife, Yolanda Cerda Leonard told the New York Times, “He said he got more work done before the phones started ringing at 9.”
Leonard was a resident of Brooklyn, N.Y. and leaves behind his wife, Yolanda Cerda Leonard, and a 8-month-old daughter Christina.
Thomas Galvin (MSB ‘90): Born Leader
Every alumnus leaves a part of himself inside Healy Gates. Fewer help define the University they left.
But Thomas Galvin (MSB ‘90) did just that.
“Tommy’s heart and smile stand as the foundation for Georgetown Golf,” Men Golf Coach Thomas Hunter said.
As co-captain, Galvin helped lead the Georgetown Men’s Golf program during the 1989-90 season. As a leader, Galvin chose to lead by example.
“Each player who has followed Tommy speaks the same language,” Hunter said. “He has helped create young men who are a notch above the norm.”
Galvin was working as senior vice president for Cantor Fitzgerald, in the World Trade Center’s South Tower, on Sept. 11.
Although no one ever knew for certain how victims responded during their last few minutes, many close to Galvin believe he was a source of positive energy.
“Tommy’s words offered a touch of reality, a ‘you-can-do-it’ sort of character,” Hunter said. “We all felt better, maybe even on top of the world, after quiet time with the G-Man.”
Patrick Sullivan, Jr. (MSB ‘91): Generous Family Member
From the back porch of his summer residence in Breezy Point, N.Y., a tiny peninsula of the east coast of Manhattan, Patrick Sullivan, Sr. had a clear view of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
He lost that view Sept. 11, but he also lost something immeasurably greater that day: his son Patrick (MSB ‘91).
After hijackers rammed the first plane into the North Tower, the elder Patrick called his son who worked on the 104th Floor of the South Tower as a stock trader for Cantor Fitzgerald. At 8:48 a.m. hijackers crashed a second plane into the South Tower.
Patrick, who received an economics degree from Georgetown, was “doing very well financially,” according to his father. He had recently received a substantial quarterly bonus and had purchased a brand-new BMW the day before.
“He had reached all his career goals,” his father said.
But career success only explains part of Sullivan’s extremely generous and fun-loving personality. Before his death, Patrick had been financially assisting his brother Gerald, a New York Police Department sergeant who was trying to complete his law studies by night. He had recently given Gerald a down payment to buy a house and had also established college funds for his nieces and nephews.
“He was very generous to his family,” Sullivan Sr. said. Patrick, according to his father, was also considering attending law school in the near future.
Sullivan, who ran track at Georgetown, was preparing to run the New York City Marathon on Nov. 4. Also, as an undergraduate, Sullivan was part of a two-person band, “Sweet and Low.” Twenty-six members of Patrick’s undergraduate class came to his memorial service.
A native of Brooklyn, Sullivan spent every day of the past summer with his family at Breezy Point, N.Y. and was considering purchasing a house in the area.
“That was the best summer he had had in his life,” his father said.
Sarah Manley (CAS ‘92): Ideal Bride
As most weddings do, theirs was supposed to signify a new beginning.
Sara Manley (CAS ‘92) and Bill Harvey (MSB ‘92), both Georgetown graduates, formed their own very special union at Chapel Hill, N.C. on Aug. 11. They celebrated their honeymoon in Italy and looked forward to an even greater celebration?spending the rest of their lives together.
That is, until tragedy struck New York in the early morning hours of Sept. 11. Manley worked on the 93rd floor, in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, where hijackers crashed an American Airlines plane at 8:48 a.m.
“Given what happened, it is a blessing, because she probably never saw it coming,” said her father John Manley, who lives in Chapel Hill.
A vice president and senior research analyst for Fred Alger Management Company for eight years, Manley researched companies in the telecommunications fields?specifically, she looked at the stocks of various companies and decided whether they were attractive enough for purchase.
Sara was a resident of her native of Wyckoff, N.J. before coming to Georgetown in 1988 to pursue a degree in economics.
“She got along very well with people,” John Manley said. “She was very generous of others.”
Sara made a strong impact on people she met?if only for a few minutes.
According to her father, the owner of the wedding store in Chapel Hill that Sara used said that she was the most beautiful bride she had ever met. The woman even asked her father if she could use Sara’s picture for advertising purposes.
John Manley said that Harvey would be setting up a scholarship in Sara’s name for Georgetown female students pursuing a degree in economics.
Joe Eacobacci (CAS ‘96): Football Standout
Joe Eacobacci (CAS ‘96) stood out as an accomplished football player. More importantly, his personality made him stand out on campus.
At Georgetown he majored in government and minored in Spanish. He played football each of his four years at Georgetown eventually becoming the team’s captain.
“I think it’s safe to say that his years at Georgetown were some of the best years of his life,” said his brother Tom Eacobacci (CAS ‘93). According to Tom, Joe often returned to campus for home football weekends to meet with old friends and coaches.
For the past two years, Eacobacci worked as an energy trader for Cantor Fitzgerald. His office was located on the 105th Floor of the World Trade Center’s South Tower.
The 2001 Georgetown football team has dedicated its season in Eacobacci’s memory. Each team member will be wearing helmets with Joe’s number for the duration of the season.
“He touched a lot of people,” his brother said. “People enjoyed being around him.”
Jason Sabbag (CAS ‘97): Driven to Succeed
“He loved life,” Ralph Sabbag said of his son Jason (CAS ‘97).
Jason served as an assistant vice president for Fiduciary Trust Company, whose office was located on the 94th floor, of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. He specialized as an assistant portfolio manager for small- to mid-size European trust funds. He had been working at the World Trade Center since September 2000. He was previously employed at a Manhattan-based City Bank.
Jason had recently passed his first Certified Financial Analyst examination and, according to his father Ralph Sabbag, had a bright future ahead of him at the company.
“He had a great future within Fiduciary Trust because he knew how to pick up the trusts,” Ralph Sabbag said. Within the year, his father said, Jason had tripled his company’s assets.
Success came easily to Jason. According to his father, one of his high school teachers said he had never heard English spoken better from one of his students.
Jason majored in economics at Georgetown, played tennis and golf and worked at the Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union. He also studied German. His father said that Jason, a native of Greenwich, Conn., planned on getting married to his long-term girlfriend in the coming year.
“He was a very good person,” Ralph Sabbag said. “He tried to help his roommates out whenever they were in trouble.”
Daniel McNeal (MBA ‘00)
Daniel McNeal (MBA ‘00) spoke with his father after hijackers crashed the first plane into the north tower of World Trade Center.
“I’m on my way out of the building, dad.”
Unfortunately, he never made it out of his office on the 104th Floor of the South Tower. As soon as Michael McNeal, Daniel’s father, hung up the phone, the news announced a second plane had hit the south tower.
“He was a real bright light in this school, and people remembered him,” the Rev. Jack Dennis told The Baltimore Sun. “I heard about him so many times before I met him.”
For 15 months, Daniel had been working as a banking analyst at Sandler O’Neil and Partners. According to Michael McNeal, Daniel had hoped to teach at Georgetown after he settled down and was ready to leave Wall Street.
McNeal received his MBA magna cum laude from Georgetown last year. He received his undergraduate degree from Boston College.
According to Michael McNeal, Daniel was president of his class from the sixth grade to junior year of high school and then president of the student body when he was a senior.
“Everybody loved Danny,” Michael McNeal said. “The church was overflowing with people at his funeral mass.”
Vanessa Kolpak (CAS ‘01)
Vanessa Kolpak (CAS ‘01) called her mother from her office in the south tower of the World Trade Center after the first plane hit the north tower.
“She said, ‘Don’t worry, mom, it wasn’t my building; I’m OK,” Anne Camarano, Vanessa’s aunt told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Kolpak had worked for three weeks before the attacks in the South Tower of the World Trade Center for the investment banking firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc.
Kolpak, one of three children, was living with her sister Alexis in New York.
Kolpak graduated from Georgetown in May magna cum laude with a degree in philosophy and a minor in economics. She grew up in Lincolnwood, Ill. and graduated from St. Ignatius College Prep.
“She was a good-hearted person,” her older brother Todd Kolpak said. “She was always a kind of a politician; she used to say she wanted to be president. I believe she could have made it.”
At Georgetown, Kolpak was a peer educator for three years and studied abroad in Prague, Czech Republic the fall semester of her junior year.
Carol Day, director of Health Education said Kolpak was vibrant, intelligent, reliable and responsible.
“She loved living life,” Day said. “She just enjoyed life to the hilt and had a lot of close friends.”
Mitch Kaneda, associate dean of the School of Foreign Service, remembered Kolpak from his class by her big smile and outgoing personality.
“She went to the beach with her classmates before graduation, and before she went, she told me how much she was looking forward to spending the last few days of college with her friends. I think that was my last conversation with Vanessa,” Kaneda said. “It tears my heart to learn that she is still in the ruins of the World Trade Center.”
