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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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PAUL closes in Western Market
By Ella Mitchell, Staff Writer • April 22, 2024

A New Day, A New War: GW loses eight alumni to attacks

Andrew Stergiopoulos (’00)
Stergiopoulos, 23, the youngest GW alumnus to lose his life in the tragedy graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
Stergiopoulos worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, a company based in New York that has “strong ties” to GW, business school Dean Susan Phillips said in a letter to the community. He worked on the 105th floor of the North World Trade Center Tower.

Melissa M. Harrington Hughes (’95)
Trapped on the 101st floor of the North Tower, Hughes, 31, spent her final moments calling her father and her husband of one year shortly before the tower collapsed. A director of business development for Slam-Dunk Networks, a California-based company, she was in New York attending a financial technology conference. Hughes graduated with a master’s in business administration.

Todd H. Reuben (’89)
Reuben, 40, was a passenger on American Airlines flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon. He was a specialist in tax and partnership law and worked with D.C. law firm Venable LLP. His career began in 1989 with the Tucker Flyer law firm after receiving a law degree at GW. Friends and family said Reuben had a strong sense of family and was especially close with his twin 11-year-old sons.

John Sammartino (’86)
An engineer with XonTech, Inc. in nearby Rosslyn, Va., Sammartino was aboard American Airlines Flight 77 to Los Angeles. Originally from New York, Sammartino moved to D.C. in the early ’80s to attend GW and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. A 4-year-old daughter survives him.

James T. Waters (’84)
Waters, 39, a senior vice president at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. Waters was in his office on the 89th floor of the South Tower when the North Tower was struck by a hijacked airliner. He e-mailed colleagues at Bloomberg to say he was OK and called family to tell them he was safe. He is now presumed dead.
Waters grew up in Litchfield, Conn., where his mother, Joanne Waters, lives. He also leaves a younger brother and sister. He graduated from GW with a bachelor of arts from the Columbian School of Arts and Sciences.

Robert F. Mace (’84)
Mace was an assistant counsel with Cantor Fitzgerald and is among 700 of the company’s 1,000 presumed or confirmed dead. Mace, 43, received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland in 1980 and a law degree from GW in 1984.
Mace’s office was on the 104th floor of the North Tower. His mother Wilma Stichter, brother Ken Mace and stepsister Dawn Sheffy survive him.

John P. O’Neill (’78)
Former FBI agent and one of the nation’s most refined soldiers in the war against terrorism, O’Neill died attempting to save people trapped in the World Trade Center towers. O’Neill, who received a master’s degree in forensic science from GW, served as head of security for the World Trade Center. Friends, family and colleagues said O’Neill’s dedication to his work was his most prominent quality.
O’Neill worked for the FBI for most of his adult life, playing a crucial role in the investigations of the 1993 WTC bombing, bombing of the U.S.S. Cole and embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

Sarah M. Clark
Clark died doing what she loved – being a teacher. She was aboard American Airlines Flight 77 escorting a group of children to an ecological conference in Santa Barbara, Calif. Clark, who received a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Winston-Salem University and a master’s degree in urban learning from GW in 1975, dedicated her life to teaching. Clark, 65, had been teaching in D.C. public schools for more than 35 years and was recently engaged. Her two children survive her.

-compiled by Katie Warchut
source: Office of Alumni Relations

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