The Clarkson University Air Force and Army ROTC color guard at a previous 9/11 remembrance ceremony.

POTSDAM -- Clarkson University will host their annual 9/11 remembrance ceremony Friday, Sept. 11, at 8:30 a.m. at Clarkson's World Trade Center Memorial Sculpture located across the road from the Rowley Laboratories building.

On Sept. 11, 2001, almost 3,000 people perished in the terrorist attacks on American soil, including four Clarkson University alumni.

The steel in Clarkson’s World Trade Center Memorial is from 55th floor of the World Trade Center's south tower.

Clarkson alumnus Michael Bielawa '85 was one of a group who led the 9/11 clean-up at the World Trade Center. After his first-hand experience with the disaster, Bielawa requested that the New York City Office of Emergency Management donate steel from the World Trade Center to Clarkson to be used for a memorial. Several years of planning and fund-raising led to the installation of a memorial at Clarkson in 2005.

This site was dedicated as a memorial to the four alumni’s lives lost in the World Trade Center attacks. Each of the alumni’s names, Peter A. Klein ’87, Paul R. Hughes ’85, Richard J. O’Connor ’75, and R. Mark Rasweiler ’70, is engraved above a light installed in the foundation of the structure, and at night the lights shine up on the structural beams.

The event is open to the public and members of local rescue squads, fire or police departments, the military, and veterans are invited to attend in dress uniform. In the event of inclement weather, the ceremony will take place in the Student Center forum.