My City September 2021

MYSTORY

A BRIGHT LIGHT LOST BY MARK SPEZIA PHOTOS PROVIDED BY THE BENNETT FAMILY AND FERRIS STATE UNIVERSITY

unique personality and skill set. He reveled in serving as a tour guide for visitors from his home state. “New York fit Eric to a tee, because the city is always going,” says his mother, Betty. “That was Eric – always going.” Bennett indeed embraced the bustle of New York’s boroughs and was happily navigating through it while commuting to work under blue skies on the picturesque, sunny morning of September 11, 2001. Arriving at his office to a typical Tuesday schedule, Bennett began conducting a sales meeting some time before 8:30am. There was no way of knowing it was the day that would forever change America. As Bennett led the meeting, hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 with 81 passengers and 11 crew mem bers aboard was flying at a shockingly low altitude, heading straight for the World Trade Center. At roughly 8:46, Bennett and his colleagues were jolted by the violent impact of the plane striking the north tower not far below them between the 93rd and 99th floors. Remaining calm, Bennett called the company’s main headquarters in Boston to report what happened. Minutes later, a second hijacked airliner struck the south tower. During the next 90 min utes, another plane was flown into The Pentagon in Washington, D.C., a fourth was hijacked over Ohio before crash ing into a Pennsylvania field and both World Trade Center towers collapsed. The worst terrorist attacks on Amer ican soil claimed nearly 3,000 lives. Bennett ’s family and friends were in disbelief. “As soon as I heard about the first plane flying into the tower, I knew Eric was there,” Betty recalls.

was building with Alliance Consulting Group on the north tower’s 102nd floor. As the summer of 2001 drew to a close and his 30th birthday approached, the affable, outgoing and ambitious Bennett had been living in the Big Ap ple for nearly six years and had already risen to the rank of vice president. That was only his most recent accomplishment. Growing up, Bennett found success in many sports, lettering in football, track and wrestling at Kearsley and exhibit ing unmistakable leadership skills from an early age. Despite a lanky, 6-foot-1, 185-pound frame, he walked onto the football team at NCAA Division 2 Ferris State University, eventually becoming the Bulldogs’ starting center and earning hon orable mention all-conference honors. Not long after graduating, Bennett arrived in New York and soon realized the city was a perfect match for his

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E ric Bennett never tired of taking in the view of New York from the balcony of his brownstone in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood. There, he was at peace. Most days, the Flint Kearsley gradu ate could clearly see the World Trade Center’s twin towers, a little more than four miles away in Lower Manhat tan, while reflecting on the career he

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