By Richard D. Smith for The Montgomery News | September 12, 2026
The skies were overcast and uncertain, but the spirits of three dozen citizens gathered in Rocky Hill's Panicaro Park on the 25th anniversary of 9/11 were clear and determined of purpose.
“We are honoring all those who lost their lives on 9/11,” said Mayor Robert Uhrik, “but especially our own William F. Fallon.”
Fallon, Jr., 53, was a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey general manager with his office on the 62nd floor of One World Trade Center. He delayed his own leaving while ensuring the evacuation of other employees, many of whom survived.
“Tragedies affect everyone,” Mayor Uhrik said. “How we face these challenges determines how we will go forward, knowing we are all in this together.”
On this day — a full quarter century after the terrorist attack on America — Mayor Uhrik exhorted the gathering “not to forget the younger generation who were not born yet or were too young to understand what had happened. Let’s pass along to the next generation an appreciation for the armed forces that keep our country safe and the first responders who risk their lives in times of disaster.”
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Brenda C. Fallon, Bill’s widow, spoke of the powerful meanings of Rocky Hill’s 9/11 monument in the park. Created by her brother-in-law Alex Krumdieck and dedicated 15 years ago, it incorporates a stone obelisk reminiscent of a World Trade Center tower and an actual I-beam from the destroyed complex.
“The stone represents all who suffered and died that day,” she said. “The steel beam is tortured, juxtaposed to the clean lines of the stone column, presenting the unadulterated violence of that day.”
But Ms. Fallon also sees in the stone the strength and support that Bill gave his family and neighbors, and that which she received from family, friends and the entire community after the tragedy. And the steel beam “was not destroyed, but survived ~ it is with us today ~ gracefully twisted in an upward spiral, gently touching the tower.”
Rev. Charlie Dietrich, a retired minister living in Kingston, requested that the assembled persons hold the hand of someone next to them to openly manifest the connectedness being felt at the ceremony.
While mourning the death and suffering which occurred that day, Rev. Dietrich observed, “we also see the miracles, the awareness of hope, that we are giving creatures and one nation indivisible. “We can make this truly a blessed day.”
The observation concluded with Frances Slade, director of Princeton Pro Musica, leading the assemblage in the singing of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”
