Managing Editor
Nine years ago tomorrow, Sept. 11, 2001, four financial executives with ties to Jacksonville were in New York City, at or near the World Trade Center, when terrorists struck with two hijacked planes.
Mag Black-Scott, John Godfrey, Lynn Reaser and Mark Vitner survived the destruction of the towers and the nation’s sense of security that day.
Nine years later, they continue to reflect on 9/11 and how their lives have changed.
They have been interviewed and quoted since then, in the wake of 9/11 and at the fifth anniversary.
Mag Black-Scott, then Mag Black, is a former Jacksonville stockbroker who returns to Northeast Florida regularly to spend time with family, friends and business associates.
Before 9/11, she moved to Los Angeles. She was with Morgan Stanley and visiting New York that day for a conference. Morgan Stanley leased space in the second tower of the World Trade Center. She was leaving her hotel for a meeting when she saw the first plane hit.
The past nine years brought many changes. Her husband, Murray Black, died in 2004. She married retired Air Force Col. David Scott, a former Apollo astronaut who walked on the moon. She recently set up her own firm, Beverly Hills Wealth Management.
John Godfrey, Lynn Reaser and Mark Vitner all were in New York for the annual meeting of the National Association for Business Economics on 9/11.
John and Flavel Godfrey were in the New York Marriott World Trade Center when a plane hit the first tower that morning. John was in the first floor ballroom and Flavel was in their hotel room.
As hotel guests were evacuated, they separately sought safety as the second plane hit and both towers collapsed. They were reunited later that day.
The former Jacksonville-based Barnett Banks is a thread among three of the survivors, who were all in New York for the economics association’s annual meeting.
Godfrey worked at Barnett from 1981-1995, serving as chief economist. He left to teach and start his own company, Florida Economic Associates, in Jacksonville.
Vitner was a Barnett economist from 1984-1993, working with Godfrey, and then left for First Union in Charlotte, N.C. Through First Union’s mergers, Vitner became senior economist for Wachovia and then Wells Fargo.
Reaser succeeded Godfrey as Barnett’s chief economist from 1996-2000 and relocated to St. Louis after Barnett merged with NationsBank, which merged with Bank of America.
After 9/11, Reaser moved to Boston with Bank of America and recently became chief economist of the Fermanian Business and Economic Institute at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego.
On 9/11, Vitner heard the first plane hit during a conference in the Marriott at the World Trade Center. He made his way to the waterfront and evacuated on a tugboat.
Since then, he’s been raising a family, too. His wife was pregnant on 9/11. They’ve had three children.
Reaser now is president of the National Association for Business Economics.
Read their reflections of 9/11 below.
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| Mag Black-Scott President and CEO Beverly Hills Wealth Management Beverly Hills, Calif. | John Godfrey Chief Economist Florida Economic Associates Jacksonville | Lynn Reaser Chief Economist Fermanian Business and Economic Institute Point Loma Nazarene University San Diego, Calif. | Mark Vitner Managing Director and Senior Economist Wells Fargo Securities LLC Charlotte, N.C. | |
| How has your experience of 9/11 changed your approach to life? | I have a greater awareness of the fragility of life, and of the manner in which we all came together to support and help each other, physically and emotionally, on that day. New Yorkers have a soft center that isn’t usually apparent. I will never forget clinging to a New York City policeman, he was covered in dust, I was trying to get down to the site to look for colleagues, both of us crying and him telling me, ‘It’ll all be okay, we’ll get through it together.’ To this day that memory makes me tear up. | For both my wife Flavel and myself, we have tried to celebrate the joy of life and just appreciate each day as God’s gift to us. Yesterday has come and gone and we may be here tomorrow. We have made special efforts to have others celebrate the joy of life as we do. | It made me much more aware of the value of each day and the importance of appreciating the goodness we encounter in life. I reflect often, for example, on the kindness of the people I drove back to St. Louis with and of the people who took me into their home, an economist and his wife whom I had never before met. The events of September 11 also made me keenly aware that what one may fear or worry about the most may pale in comparison to other events. For example, I had been anxious over a live interview scheduled with Larry Kudlow and Jim Cramer to be conducted on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on 9/11. It never happened… | It has not changed it much. Right after the event, I went out of my way not to change the way I lived my life. I made sure that I got back on the road and in front of clients as soon as possible. I do make sure that I keep in communication with the office and my family more often, however, and with three kids, I try to back off some of the travel. I have only had limited success and almost always seem to be traveling on September 11. This year I will be at a friend’s bachelor party in Las Vegas. |
| Have you returned to the site of ground zero? | Yes, I returned in December immediately following 9/11. I had a board meeting in a building across from the site. I couldn’t bear to even look at it through the window many floors up. I returned again in January 2004 when I took Murray, my late husband, to see it. I thought we each should see it. It wasn’t a good idea; I couldn’t linger, too many colliding images. | Yes, once after only about a month when the acrid smell of smoke still hung heavy over lower Manhattan. Since Flavel and I were separated during the events on that day and went in entirely different directions, we showed each other the route the other had taken. On another occasion, we went up to the observation platform to look down into ground zero. | No, although not because of reluctance, but just no opportunity or reason to visit. | I have not been back to ground zero. I am really not that curious to see it. As far as I can tell, it looks just like a construction site. I have been nearby, however. Wells Fargo has a major presence in a nearby building. Most of our business is in Midtown, however, so it does not give me much time to get near the site. |
| How do you commemorate the event each year? | The three colleagues with whom I drove back across the country reach out to each other and just say we’re thinking of each other. | Our second granddaughter, Daniella, was born on September 11, 2005, so we have another life in our family to celebrate. | A few moments of reflection and thankfulness along with the rest of the nation. | I usually do not do all that much. I say an extra prayer or two at the High Holidays services and give a little money to the Red Cross. They provided water and a place for me to wash all the ash from my face after I got across the river. This was my only time to ever need help from the Red Cross. I also try to donate blood as often as I can and ask anyone that offers to pay me a speaking fee during the year to donate to the American Red Cross instead. |
| Do you have plans for next year, the 10th anniversary of 9/11? | No, I have no plans for next year’s anniversary. I’ll remember it the same way and with my own silent prayers. I will not be at-tending any special ceremonies. | Celebrate a big day in Daniella’s life, her 6th birthday! | Nothing special is planned at this time. The National Association for Business Economics will return to New York in 2012 for our annual meeting. Our leadership has determined it is time to return. | Next year I will probably do a bit more to mark the anniversary, but I do not know what just yet. My children still do not know about 9/11, but my oldest son might learn about it in school next year and I might share with him my memories of that day. I also may go to the 9/11 museum in New York City once it opens. |