Melanie de Vere      
Melanie, 30, originally came from Hayling Island (located off the south coast of the United Kingdom), but had been living in London since her mid-20s. In the summer of 2001, she’d been given a new job by her firm, the Risk Waters Group, a company which is involved in specialist business-to-business publishing and conferences. Melanie’s new job, as a publisher with Waters Reference Products, would involve spending alternate fortnights in New York and London. She flew to New York on Monday, Sept. 10, to help organize an IT conference that was due to take place in Windows on the World.

Many people’s lasting impression of Mel was her constant smile. She always found the positive side to every situation and had a warmth of character and enthusiasm for life that could not be matched. She could hardly contain her excitement when she spoke about her new role at Risk Waters, which would see her dividing her time between her life in the United Kingdom (including her loving family and long-term boyfriend) and her new responsibilities in New York.

Christine Olender
The assistant general manager of Windows on the World, Christine was described as calm, warm and friendly. Growing up in a Polish community on Chicago's northwest side, Christine helped out in her parents' clothing store, where she developed an interest in fashion and design. In 1981, she went to New York to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She changed tracks when she entered restaurant management, but maintained an interest in design, helping to guide the renovation of Windows on the World's restaurant and buying stock for her parents' shop. While away from home, Olender stayed in close touch with her parents, calling once and sometimes twice a day. She popped home for weekends when she could, sometimes surprising her parents by arriving with no warning.

Olender, 39, earned the praise of employers and employees at Windows on the World for her creativity and sunny disposition – particularly in light of the long hours she put in at the restaurant. She hung out with the kitchen and table staff after work, wore a firefighter's hat to blow the whistle for fire drills, and took a proactive role in working with the restaurant's management. On the morning of 9/11, she took charge of about 100 people and tried to find a safe haven for them amid the growing levels of smoke. Trapped on the 106th floor by blocked stairwells, Christine made four phone calls to emergency staff, as revealed by published transcripts. 

Frank de Martini  
A construction manager, Frank was employed by the Port Authority, which owned the World Trade Center, to assess the damage to the Twin Towers after the 1993 bomb. Frank, a 49-year-old Italian American, was married to Nicole, who was a structural engineer. She, too, worked in the towers. Frank was a family man with two young children, and his office – on the 88th floor of the North Tower – was decorated with pictures drawn by his kids. He loved his work and was known for his in-depth understanding of the towers’ construction.

Frank’s dedicated commitment to the job, combined with a fearless sense of duty, explains his exemplary and selfless efforts in rescuing people on 9/11. After the impact, it was impossible to climb up to the 92nd floor as all three emergency stairwells were damaged, but the fact that people escaped from the 89th and 90th floors was largely due to Frank’s determination in knocking down walls and breaking through doors.    

Pablo Ortiz     
Frank de Martini was assisted by 49-year-old Pablo Ortiz, a construction inspector for the Port Authority. An ex-military man, Pablo was disciplined and relentlessly neat – his wife remembers him as very patient. Pablo had an easygoing attitude and he stayed with Frank as they climbed higher into the dying building. Together they “rolled back the boundary between life and death” as the New York Times later put it.  Pablo’s story on 9/11 is the same as Frank’s – they saved many people, including Rick Bryan, who clearly remembers the moment when Pablo broke through the wall to rescue them. 

Harry Ramos        
Harry Ramos, 41, was the head trader at May Davis (a small investment bank). Harry started out as a carpenter, but through hard work and commitment he succeeded in fulfilling his dream to become a senior trader. Very warm and universally liked, several people said he was probably the one person on Wall Street who enjoyed universal affection. He had recently become a father.

On 9/11, thick smoke came into Harry’s office and various people ripped up their T-shirts and the like to cover their mouths before exiting toward the fire door, with Harry helping to lead the way. Around the 56th floor, members of May Davis recall seeing a heavyset gentleman named Victor sitting on a stairwell, saying he couldn’t go on. He refused to let them help him, so they promised to tell rescue teams about him – which they did. But Victor seemed to listen to Harry. Harry stayed with Victor (later supported by Hong Zhu) and tried to help him downstairs, but the exhausting effort was too much for Victor and he could only move slowly. Both he and Harry were killed when the North Tower collapsed.

Victor Wald
Victor was a complex man who had a great interest in current affairs and the wider world around him. His wife Rebecca felt he should have taken up a job as a college professor. But, concerned about money, Victor plugged away at his work as a stockbroker with Avalon Partners, working on the 83rd floor. Victor was a New Yorker through and through and was committed to his religion, Judaism. 

On 9/11, Victor tried to call Rebecca to say he was leaving the building. He couldn’t reach her but was able to pass on a message. At first he made good progress but as the descent continued he found it harder to keep going. Somewhere around the 59th floor he sat down and waited for help. Many people walked by until Harry Ramos stopped to help. Hong recalls that Harry was ever-diligent: He kept checking Victor’s health, and asking about his heart.  When he said he’d go ahead and look for a clear area, Victor got worried that Harry would leave him behind. Harry assured him he would stay with him the whole way, which he did, until their attempt to leave the building was cruelly cut short by the tower’s collapse.

Alayne Gentul
The director of human resources at Fiduciary Trust, Alayne was 44 and married with two children. Born in Queens, N.Y., in 1956, Alayne received a B.A. in psychology from Rutgers University. While at Rutgers, she met her husband, Jack, and began working for Fiduciary Trust as a personnel assistant in 1982. While at Fiduciary, she earned a master's in business administration from NYU, which she received in 1988. Alayne was a devoted mother to her sons and was active in the Community Church. She taught Sunday school kindergarten for nine years.

With the help of other staff, including Ed Emery, Alayne managed to save at least 40 colleagues by encouraging people to leave the South Tower as soon as she heard what had happened to the North Tower (the first one to be hit). It was with this in mind that Alayne went up to the 97th floor to try and find more people who might not be aware of the seriousness of the situation.