The Oak Ridge High School Student Council was honored to be selected to receive the historical artifacts retrieved from the rubble of the World Trade Center. The US Army Corps of Engineers gave us two box columns. One 11-foot beam was used in the ORHS campus memorial. The other beam is 13 feet long and is the steel to be distributed nationally. A block of granite from the rubble sent by the Army Corps is approximately 1 foot by 2 feet and is said to be one of the largest pieces of granite retrieved at Ground Zero, the rest being mostly pulverized into gravel. The block was inscribed with “September 11, 2001” and is set atop a pedestal in the ORHS campus memorial.

The Army Corps also helped Kenneth Senter, one of the Student Council advisors, to receive permission from Mayor Bloomberg’s office to travel to the Fresh Kills Landfill and retrieve one other 5-foot beam. This significantly damaged beam is now a part of the ORHS campus memorial. Mr. Senter wrote a letter to then Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani, on September 17th.  As a history teacher and student leadership advisor, Senter wanted Oak Ridge, an historical national security installation, to lead in bringing a memorial of this attack upon the American way of life home to every American. The original plan was to place a piece of WTC steel in every cooperating high school. By the time this campaign was successful, however, the vast majority of the steel had been scrapped beyond retrieval as legitimate WTC steel.

September 11, 2002 Memorial Dedication on the campus of Oak Ridge High School

Tennessee leaders helped gain both state and national governmental sanction. The Tennessee General Assembly passed Senate Joint Resolution #497 in support of the plan. Congressman Zach Wamp entered a commendation of the idea into the Congressional Record. These leaders having taken the dream of a teacher and his students seriously, personnel in the NY division of the US Army Corps responsible for the clean up at Ground Zero saw their patriotism and determination. A Knoxville, TN, company, Philips and Jordan, Inc., was consulting with the Army Corps and offered to return some materials to East Tennessee for free. The two first columns and the granite arrived in Oak Ridge on July 8, 2002 escorted by police and fire vehicles from the edge of town to the ORHS campus. O’Quinn Enterprises, Inc., a Maynardville, TN, steel fabrication firm, offered its services in preserving the steel and in building the memorial.

Mr. Senter continued to ask for more steel for other schools. The final break came when the US Army Corps recommended to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office that more be released for the national goals of the Student Council. Mr. Senter traveled to New York City and had the help of three NY policemen and a FBI agent in lifting one of the last 20 pieces of steel into his truck on August 6, 2002. The other pieces were being given out to other memorial or educational efforts and were all gone by August 9th. While this final piece given to the Student Council was the smallest, it allowed a stirring memorial to be created on the campus of Oak Ridge High School while the largest piece was then dedicated to the national campaign.

The ORHS Student Council was informed by the Smithsonian Institution that construction stamps located on the larger columns revealed by number references the floor from which each column came using construction drawings of the World Trade Center.  The column dedicated for the national campaign came from the 65th floor of one of the towers.

On September 11, 2002, an unveiling and dedication ceremony was held on the campus of Oak Ridge High School. Over 400 students and citizens turned out including representatives of the Oak Ridge Police and Fire Departments, the Salvation Army, and of two Tennessee families who lost immediate family members in the attacks. ORHS graduates close to the attacks spoke about their experiences on September 11th and following.  John Vogt, Executive Vice President of The Bond Market Association and a major financial contributor to the construction of the memorial, spoke about connecting with family and friends as the key to surviving this crisis. FBI Special Agent, Chris Rigopoulos, spoke about his experiences investigating the crime scene at Ground Zero.

The materials incorporated into the campus memorial at ORHS will serve as a tangible reminder of the attacks and of the humiliation the United States experienced that day. But as they remain there over the generations, they are intended as a memorial to all innocent victims of terrorism and an inspiration for all who see them to work harder to preserve the position of the United States as a leader in all that is good in the world.