Indiana University of Pennsylvania will mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on September 11 starting at 11:10 a.m. in front of the 9/11 memorial in the IUP Oak Grove. The program is open to the community.
IUP 9/11 Memorial
In addition to an opportunity to reflect on and mark the anniversary of the attacks, the event includes a remembrance of the three IUP alumni lost in the World Trade Center attacks: Donald Jones, a 1980 graduate; William Moskal, a 1979 graduate; and William (Bill) Sugra, a 1993 graduate.
Jones and Sugra worked for Cantor Fitzgerald in the north tower of the World Trade Center. Jones was a bond broker from Bucks County.
Moskal, a safety sciences graduate and Johnstown native, was a risk consultant for Marsh and McLennan in Cleveland, specializing in heavy construction. He was in New York on September 11, 2001, for a meeting at the World Trade Center.
Sugra lived in Manhattan and worked for e-Speed, Cantor Fitzgerald’s electronic trading unit. Sugra’s family, of Allentown, continues to provide the funding for an annual memorial scholarship in his honor for IUP students.
The university’s September 11 memorial in the Oak Grove is located between Sutton Hall and Stapleton Library. It includes a 13-foot remnant of the World Trade Center, on long-term loan to the university from the Kovalchick family of Indiana.
Speakers for the 2026 event are IUP President Michael Driscoll and Retired Army Major General Leslie Purser, a 1980 IUP graduate who is a decorated combat veteran with 37 years of military service. Her last assignment was as acting principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
Maj. Gen. Leslie Purser
Maj. Gen. Purser is one of only 10 two-star generals in the US Army Reserve. She is a 2018 IUP Distinguished Alumni Award recipient and is past president of the IUP Alumni Association Board of Directors.
Army Lt. Col. Laura Hamilton, chair of the IUP Department of Military Science and a member of the 2nd Brigade, US Army Cadet Command, will serve as master of ceremonies.
Music will be performed by the IUP Wind Ensemble under the direction of Timothy Paul, director of Bands.
Past speakers for the event have included retired US Army Brigadier General Robin Paul Swan, a 1978 graduate of IUP and Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, who has 32 years of military service and was director of the Army Office of Enterprise Management; national award-winning journalist Tim Lambert, a 1992 communications media graduate, whose family owned part of the land where Flight 93 crashed on September 11, 2001 and who produced a National Public Radio series about the crash; IUP student Abigail Knapp, then a cadet in IUP’s ROTC program whose family owned land that was the site of the Flight 93 crash; Michael Tyree, the IUP faculty lead for the Flight 93 National Memorial Reforestation Monitoring Project; Danny Sacco, a lifelong resident of Center Township, who was deployed to Ground Zero in New York City in September 2001 and who has been recognized locally, regionally, and nationally for his a five-decade career in public safety; James Leda, a 1995 IUP graduate, Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, and past president of the Foundation for IUP Board of Directors, who at the time of the 2001 attacks was one block away from the World Trade Center; and the late Glenn Cannon, a 1971 graduate of IUP and former member of the IUP Council of Trustees, who was the founding director of Pittsburgh’s Emergency Medical Services Department, director of disaster operations for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
This annual event has been scheduled in conjunction with IUP’s Common Hour, a time period on weekdays set aside for events and programs.
During September, the IUP Libraries offer a special display in the first-floor lobby area about the attacks.
In the event of inclement weather, the program will be moved to Gorell Recital Hall, Sutton Hall.
Since its founding in 1875, IUP has evolved from a teacher-training institution into a doctoral research university recognized for its commitment to student success and achievement. IUP’s Impact 150 comprehensive campaign is designed to honor a legacy of educational excellence while looking toward a future of innovation, public service, and leadership in healthcare education, including the first college of osteopathic medicine at a public university in the commonwealth.