9/11: 25 Years On

Today we remember Katherine Wolf, née James, from West Cross, who was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center on 11th September 2001.

She studied at the Royal College of Music in London before later accompanying the Philbeach Society, an amateur operetta group. It was music that eventually took her to America in 1988, when the group performed with the Village Light Opera Group in Manhattan. It was there that she met Charles, who later recalled seeing her for the first time and immediately wanting to know who she was. They were together from then on.

They married in Swansea on the 1st September 1989. Their marriage was later blessed on the 13th October 1990 at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York. They settled in New York and lived in Greenwich Village, a mile away from the World Trade Center complex.

After moving to New York, Katherine worked for several years at Schroders in Midtown Manhattan, before taking up a new role as an executive assistant to the president of Marsh & McLennan’s e-commerce operation on the 97th floor of the North Tower. She had been in the job for only around two weeks when, at 8:46 a.m, the first plane struck the World Trade Center. Her remains were never identified.

After her death, Charles became one of the best known campaigners over the federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, founding Fix the Fund and pushing for changes in how compensation was calculated and administered.

Katherine was one of ours, and today we remember her not simply for how she died, but for who she was and the life she should have had.