The little girl set her dad’s sneakers by the door. He snugged the laces and set off to work.
Just another day. A bright September Tuesday.
That girl, Maggie Smith, is 22 now. It’s been two decades since her father, Jeffrey Smith, jogged across Lower Manhattan that morning to his office at the investment banking firm of Sandler O’Neill & Partners, on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center. He was killed when the twin towers were brought down that day — one of the 2,753 people who died after the attack in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.
Year after year the date kindles memories. There will be grief again this time, and the keening of bagpipes, and the solemn recitation of names.
The children of 9/11, some 3,000 in number, are grown up now and chasing their own dreams. A few dozen have sworn an oath, like the parents they lost once did, to serve New York as firefighters or police officers. And a few dozen, like Maggie Smith, have followed the ones they lost onto Wall Street — some into the very same investment firms. Smith, fresh out of Cornell, started at Piper Sandler, the successor to Sandler O’Neill, on July 21.
Time heals. But this Sept. 11, the 20th commemoration, feels particularly poignant for Wall Street’s 9/11 generation. They’re making their way, moving up, looking forward — and, at the same time, always looking back. Some went to Wall Street to follow in their parent’s last footsteps. Others simply discovered they liked finance and had a head for numbers. Or maybe, as in the case of Smith, it was a bit of both.
“It’s really special, and it makes me very, very happy that I have the opportunity to grow the memory of him and create my own legacy at the same time,” Smith says of her father. “I want to be able to have an impact on the company in the way that my dad wasn’t able to.”
Few could’ve predicted all that would follow 9/11 — the longest war in U.S. history, the loss of trust in institutions, political divisions so bitter that a mob would storm the U.S. Capitol. Twenty years after dust choked Manhattan streets, the nation and world confront Covid-19. For now, New York — its next mayor set to be elected in November — is pushing forward with restless energy.
Sandler was one of the hardest hit firms on 9/11. Of the 83 employees who were in the office that morning, only 17 made it out alive. Sandler lost two of its leaders: co-founder Herman Sandler and Chris Quackenbush, head of investment banking. Jeffrey Smith, an equity research analyst, was 36. He’d worked there for five years.
That Jimmy Dunne survived was just blind luck: he happened to be on the golf course that morning. Quackenbush’s best friend since childhood, Dunne went on to chart the course for Sandler’s long journey back, eventually sealing a deal with Piper Jaffray Cos. in 2019. Along the way, Sandler — like several other hard-hit firms — paid for college for the children of employees who were killed. Two people, including Smith, who lost a parent at Sandler now work at the firm.