What you should know
- Bob Beckwith, a former New York firefighter forever immortalized in a photograph of him standing with President George W. Bush at Ground Zero days after the 9/11 attacks, has died at the age of 91.
- The former president issued a statement Monday sharing his condolences “to Barbara and the Beckwith family as they remember this humble and decent man.”
- “Laura and I are saddened by the passing of Bob Beckwith. On September 11, 2001, Bob was happily retired after more than 30 years of service with the New York City Fire Department. When the terrorists attacked, Bob put on his firefighter uniform again and, like so many brave first responders, ran toward danger to save and search for others. His bravery represented the defiant and resilient spirit of New Yorkers and Americans after 9/11,” said former President George W. Bush.
NEW YORK — Bob Beckwith, a former New York firefighter forever immortalized in a photograph of him standing with President George W. Bush at Ground Zero days after the Sept. 11 attacks, has died at age 91.
The former president issued a statement Monday sharing his condolences “to Barbara and the Beckwith family as they remember this humble and decent man.”
“Laura and I are saddened by the passing of Bob Beckwith. On September 11, 2001, Bob was happily retired after more than 30 years of service with the New York City Fire Department. When the terrorists attacked, Bob put on his firefighter uniform again and, like so many brave first responders, ran toward danger to save and search for others. His bravery represented the defiant and resilient spirit of New Yorkers and Americans after 9/11,” said former President George W. Bush.
The cause of Beckwith’s death was not immediately known. According to an interview which he conceded last year, around the time of the 9/11 anniversary, the retired firefighter had malignant skin cancer.
The veteran firefighter went down in history three days after September 11, 2001, when the presidential motorcade headed toward Ground Zero. Beckwith, then a 69-year-old firefighter whose retirement was cut short by his overwhelming desire to help at Ground Zero, hoped to surprise President Bush by speaking to the crowd.
Assuming Bush would speak across the street at a command post set up with a tent and microphones, Beckwith climbed into a fire truck that he and other workers helped remove from the rubble earlier that day.
Beckwith’s photo with the president would be seen on television across the country, appear in Time magazine, and forever symbolize the efforts and sacrifices made by first responders.
The following was originally published on September 14, 2021, the 20th anniversary of President George W. Bush’s speech at Ground Zero. It has been lightly edited for clarity.
Get to Ground Zero
Bush’s speech produced some of the most defining words and images of the country’s initial response to 9/11.
That Beckwith, who had retired seven years earlier after 30 years in the FDNY, was standing alongside the president as the world watched was the result of pure chance. Beckwith shared the stage with the president that day, but he wouldn’t have been anywhere near the national spotlight if he hadn’t managed to convince his family and the National Guard to let him go to Ground Zero.
On the morning of September 11, Beckwith’s grandson was hit by a vehicle while walking to school. While at his grandson’s side in the hospital later in the morning, Beckwith saw the twin towers collapse.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Beckwith said. “I felt like I was having a nightmare: my grandson was hit by a car and then the Twin Towers.”
While watching the coverage later that day, Beckwith informed his family that he was going to Ground Zero to help with the survivors.
“My children tell me: ‘You’re 69 years old. You’re too old to be down there. Don’t go down there,’” Beckwith said.
After learning that the son of a friend and fellow firefighter was among the missing, there was no way to stop Beckwith, even if it meant lying to the National Guard. Beckwith said that when he arrived at Ground Zero, the National Guard was surrounding the perimeter and they initially turned him away.
“I had to think fast,” Beckwith said. “I said, ‘You have to let me in. If I don’t get in there, I’ll get in trouble because I missed the platform this morning.’ They let me in.”
Once inside, Beckwith said he joined the bucket brigade, helping move buckets full of debris to clear debris and search for victims.
News began to circulate that Bush was on his way. Hours later, the president had a megaphone in one hand and his other arm around Beckwith’s shoulder as he addressed rescuers.
“The guys on the left said, ‘We can’t hear you!’” Beckwith said. “That’s when the president changed his entire speech and said it on the fly.”
Look at me, mom. I am with the president
It’s a speech that Beckwith, now 91, can still recite word for word.
“I can hear you,” Bush said. “The rest of the world listens to you. And the people who tore down these buildings will soon listen to all of us.”
The crowd erupted in chants of America.
“They went crazy. That was really extraordinary,” Beckwith said. “And there I am standing there. I looked up at the sky and said, ‘Look at me, Mom.’ I am with the president.’”
Bush shook Beckwith’s hand and was then handed a small American flag which he began to wave before the crowd, forming a photo of Bush and Beckwith that would soon appear on the cover of Time magazine with the headline “One Nation, Indivisible.”
As Beckwith prepared to return to work, he was tapped on the shoulder.
“It was someone from the Secret Service,” Beckwith recalled. “He said, ‘The president wants you to have this flag.'”
Beckwith, who said he didn’t know there were cameras at Ground Zero, left later that night with the flag and a question on his mind.
“I wondered who would ever believe I was with the president,” he said.
The world is watching
One of his six children, Richard Beckwith, was flying from California to his home in Pittsburgh, unaware that his father was with the president.
“I walked into the house and my wife and kids were screaming, ‘Grandpa’s on TV!’ Grandpa’s on TV!’ I was like ‘Wow, look at that.’ I was stunned. He asked me how she got to that position.”
The phone at Beckwith’s house had been ringing off the hook with calls from those who saw it. When Beckwith returned home from Ground Zero, neighbors left his house.
“A guy across the street comes up to me and says, ‘Beck, you were on TV.’ I told him, ‘Get out of here.’ There were no cameras. He said, “Go and see.” I entered the house and my granddaughter was sitting on the couch. She said, ‘Grandpa, you’re on TV. I looked and said, ‘Oh my God, I’m on TV.’ “You couldn’t see the cameras, but they saw you.”
And so did the rest of the world.
Beckwith appeared in almost every newspaper in the country. He was inundated with media requests and initially turned them down. He received requests for autographs in the mail, saying that he had received requests from as far away as Russia and Slovakia.
“It was like a miracle,” Richard Beckwith said. “I remember going to the store with the family on Saturday morning and seeing my dad in the papers and saying he was everywhere. “It was amazing to see this totally unassuming individual become a celebrity per se.”
Presidential personal touch
Each year Beckwith received a Christmas card with a Christmas-themed painting on the front. Each card received the presidential signature of his painter, George W. Bush.
“We send each other Christmas cards every year,” Beckwith said. “He is an artist. He started painting his own Christmas cards and I get one every year.”
Beckwith said he and his wife, Barbara, were invited to the White House Christmas party each year Bush was in office.
“I have memories,” he said, laughing.
Beckwith went on to speak publicly and raise funds in the US and internationally, donating all the money he received to the New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation.
Like many who survived 9/11 and who participated in the rescue effort, Beckwith did not emerge unscathed. He continued in 2021 to receive treatment at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for malignant melanoma on his face and ears.
“I’m not complaining,” he said. “I made it too old. Some of these guys aren’t getting too old. I feel very bad for them. I still go to funerals. I mean, wow.”
Still, Beckwith said, he was exactly where he needed to be that September day, representing one of many who did whatever was necessary to help during America’s time of greatest need.
Hanging in the study of Beckwith’s home is a frame containing a copy of the first issue of Time magazine in which he appears on the cover. Next to her is the American flag given to her by President Bush, serving as a constant reminder of a pain that will never subside, but also of a country that will never succumb.
“It’s not about me,” Beckwith said. “This is about the president and the country, and it was because of a terrible tragedy. I’m not going to pat myself on the back, I didn’t do anything. “When the president was there, I was in the right place at the right time.”
2024-02-05 22:28:39
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