Tri-C Dedicates First Responders Memorial on 9/11

Sculpture at KeyBank Public Safety Training Center includes World Trade Center beam

A memorial sculpture dedicated today by Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®) honors first responders and includes a steel beam salvaged from the World Trade Center after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

 
The 11-foot-tall sculpture stands at Western Campus outside the KeyBank Public Safety Training Center, where Tri-C trains the police, firefighters and rescue workers of tomorrow. The College unveiled the memorial during a ceremony this morning.

 
“This memorial recognizes our continuous commitment to all who dedicate their lives as first responders,” Tri-C President Alex Johnson said. “These heroes risk everything to help others in times of unthinkable crisis and unfathomable odds.”

 
The ceremony included a moment of silence to remember the 2,977 lives lost during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The victims included 343 New York firefighters, 23 New York police officers and 37 Port Authority officers who died when the World Trade Center towers collapsed.

 
The memorial sculpture includes a section of steel beam from the towers to exemplify the courage and sacrifice of all first responders — past, present and future.

 
The World Trade Center beam is suspended within the sculpture between nine slabs of Indiana limestone. The stones include silhouettes of patches representing police, fire and emergency services.


Bob Szabo, who served as an adjunct faculty member in the College’s Public Safety program, donated the steel beam for the memorial. He acquired the beam in 2010 to use in his classroom as a reminder of the lives lost on 9/11.

 
The sculpture was designed, fabricated and installed by Dale Johnson of Old World Stone Carving in Sunbury, Ohio.

 
A band of darker paving on the plaza surrounding the sculpture represents the shadow cast at 10:28 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001 — the time the North Tower collapsed. The shadow captures the permanence of this tragic event.


The design of the memorial site allows the shadow of the sculpture to align with the darker paving on the plaza on the anniversary of the attacks.

 
The Ohio Arts Council commissioned the project through its Ohio Percent for Art program.

 
Representatives from area police and fire departments attended the dedication, and Parma Heights Fire Chief Brian Sloan and Parma Heights Police Chief Dan Teel offered remarks during the program.

Sloan and Teel both talked of Tri-C’s role in preparing first responders to protect Northeast Ohio communities. The College trains more emergency response professionals than any other academy in Ohio.

 
“The work that is being done here is some of the most important work in our community,” Teel said. “Training the next generation of first responders is invaluable to the safety and prosperity of the community.”

 
Others who spoke during the ceremony include Trina Evans, chairperson of the Cuyahoga Community College Foundation and executive vice president and director of Corporate Center at KeyCorp; Ken Emerick of the Ohio Arts Council and sculptor Dale Johnson.

 
Representatives from Tri-C included Alex Johnson, the College’s president; Donna Imhoff, Western Campus president; and Clayton Harris, vice president and dean of the Public Safety Center of Excellence.

 

September 11, 2017

John Horton, 216-987-4281 john.horton@tri-c.edu