Darin Pontell and Devora Kirschner, friends since sixth grade, moved to Gaithersburg and got married in early 2001. A few months later, a hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon, where Pontell worked in naval intelligence.
Kirschner, frantic for news of Pontell, fruitlessly called every person she could think of who worked in the Pentagon and then waited for him to walk through the door. He never did.
Her husband was one of 11 Montgomery County residents killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks a quarter century ago. Three were on the Boeing 757 hijackers crashed into the Pentagon. Eight, including Pontell, were working in the building.
“He never said no to anything,” Kirschner said of her husband. “He was just a good person and wanted his family and friends to be happy.”
At 9 a.m. Friday, the city of Rockville and Montgomery County will host a commemoration at the memorial in the city’s Courthouse Square Park — a semicircle of 11 benches, each engraved with the name of a Montgomery County resident killed in the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history.
One bench is dedicated to Potomac’s Gerald Fisher, who went to the Pentagon on 9/11 for an early-morning meeting.
Read More
“It astounds me because it doesn’t feel like 25 years,” said his widow, Christine Fisher, who often visits the Rockville memorial.
She with other family members of the 11 helped design the county’s 9/11 memorial, a quiet, grassy oasis in downtown Rockville that is also dedicated to the nearly 3,000 others who died in the attacks at the Pentagon, in New York City and in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
The memorial also includes a small pavilion with a plaque designed with the help of astronomers so that sunlight hits the 11 names in the morning. A poem on the plaque reads:
Love is longer than death,
Memory deeper than anguish,
You have been our strength and our past.
We will be your future.
Remembering lives lost
Twenty-five years of that future have passed.
Fisher said she was supposed to meet her husband of 20 years for dinner the night of 9/11, to celebrate her Sept. 10 birthday.
“It’s just etched in my memory,” she said. “Now, I’ve been without him longer than when I was with him.”
Alison Coffey, whose family lived in Chevy Chase, lost her mother, Michele Heidenberger, the senior flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 77.
Coffey was then 20, and in college at Loyola University Maryland. Her younger brother was 14. Two nights before the attacks, they celebrated Coffey’s birthday, which is Sept. 10.
“The last time I saw her, she just looked like an angel,” Coffey said. “She was very thoughtful, very kind, very funny. She was a great role model.”
Heidenberger’s husband — Coffey’s father — was a pilot who had to go back to work shortly after his wife died.
Coffey is now raising three children of her own. Her mom would have spoiled them, she said.
“I feel that I was robbed of my motherhood with my mom,” she said. “I just have to work harder at remembering her and what she taught me.”
With other local officials, state Sen. Cheryl Kagan will attend Friday’s memorial service. She also has a personal tie to one of the Montgomery County victims.
It’s difficult for her to imagine, she said, that it’s been 25 years since her childhood friend Todd Reuben died on Flight 77. Kagen and Reuben went to each other’s bar and bat mitzvahs and as adults would bump into each other in Rockville.
“The tragedy is that Todd left a wife and twin boys, who at the time were 11. It’s a little hard to fathom that they’re all grown up” Kagan said. “Sometimes it feels like forever ago. Sometimes it feels really recent.”
Here are short biographies, drawn from The National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial and other sources, of the 11 Montgomery County residents who died in the 9/11 attacks.
Caswell, 54, lived in Silver Spring for most of his life. He was a physicist and worked as a civilian for the Navy and taught at the University of Maryland. He was a passenger on Flight 77 headed to Los Angeles on business. Caswell enjoyed playing games and spending time with his wife, daughter and stepson. His family has said he was very competitive.
Fisher, 57, of Potomac, was a consultant at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. His 30-year career included stints in government, academia and the private sector. He had two children and was remembered by his family and colleagues as an optimist with a dry sense of humor. He had gone to the Pentagon to give a briefing on survivor benefits for military employees.
Getzfred, 57, lived in Silver Spring with his wife and two daughters. He joined the Navy shortly after graduating from high school in Nebraska and earned dozens of awards in his decades-long military career. He was working in the Navy Command Center at the Pentagon when the building was struck.
Heidenberger, 52, of Chevy Chase, was the senior flight attendant aboard Flight 77 and had worked for the airline for about 30 years. She also worked with children at St. Ann’s Infant and Maternity Home and volunteered at her two children’s schools.
Houtz, 27, was a Department of Navy intelligence analyst in the Pentagon. She graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Houtz was active in her church and volunteered to help homeless people. In 2021, the Navy established a medal to honor fallen civilians and named it for Houtz.
Moy, 48, lived in Silver Spring with his wife and two children. He worked at the Pentagon as a program manager in information management support for the Army. Moy grew up in Washington and spent his childhood helping at his parents’ food market. He met his wife, Madeline, on a school trip to Taiwan. She has described her husband as very patriotic.
Pontell, 26, lived in Gaithersburg with his wife, Devora. They married in March 2001. Pontell was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and was deployed overseas for several years. He was working in a specialized naval intelligence unit in the Pentagon at the time of the attack.
Powell, 35, worked as a civilian contractor for BTG Inc. at the Pentagon. He lived in Silver Spring and had three children and was very close with his twin brother. They formed a band together in third grade and later started a music production company. He loved to play music and played bass, acoustic guitar and keyboard.
Reuben, 40, lived in Potomac with his wife and two sons. He was a graduate of Winston Churchill High School and was a corporate partner in the Washington law firm then known as Venable, Baetjer and Howard. He played soccer in high school and college and enjoyed coaching his twin boys in basketball and soccer. Reuben was a passenger on Flight 77.
Statz, 41, was working at the Pentagon as she pursued her doctoral degree in education. She lived with her husband and two sons in Takoma Park. The Wisconsin native moved to Germany after college to work as an actress and director at U.S. Army base theaters. After returning to the U.S., she and her family bought a house in Takoma Park in 2000.
Willcher, 62, grew up in Montgomery County and lived with his family in North Potomac. He had two sons, served in the Army for three years and spent another 37 years in the service as a civilian. After retiring from the Army, Willcher worked for Booz, Allen & Hamilton. He was consulting at the Pentagon the day of the attack.
Comments
Welcome to The Banner's subscriber-only commenting community. Please review our community guidelines.