It’s hard to believe, but September 11, 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 2001. The attacks occurred far from Indiana, but they felt immediate and deeply personal to me and my firm. While the memories are painful, we must never forget.

“It was a clear morning in the middle of September. If there was one geographical spot in the United States that could justly be called the financial center of the country, it was the junction of Broad and Wall Streets in New York. There was a sudden blinding flash of bluish-white light and a terrific crashing roar, followed by the clatter of falling glass from innumerable windows and by the screams of men and women.

“A huge bomb had gone off in the street—with such appalling violence that it killed thirty people outright and injured hundreds, wrecked the interior of offices, smashed windows for blocks around, and drove an iron slug through the window of the Bankers’ Club on the thirty-fourth floor of the Equitable Building.”

Was this a news account of the horror of the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001?

No, it’s an excerpt from Frederick Lewis Allen’s book, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920’s, describing the terror attack on Wall Street on September 16, 1920. The FBI’s official account of the attack, a PBS American Experience documentary “The Bombing of Wall Street” and the Smithsonian magazine’s “Anger and Anarchy on Wall Street” provide additional insights.

The September attacks were separated by 81 years, but each sought to strike at the heart of American finance. Neither succeeded in their quest to break the country’s financial system or its resolve.

For me, September 11 will always be inseparable from William Ralph “Will” Raub.

Will was a broker for Cantor Fitzgerald who began covering my firm in 1985. He was 22, fresh out of Siena College, and we initially wondered what value someone so young could bring to our firm. What he lacked in experience, however, he more than made up for in persistence, effort and an uncommon commitment to his clients. Over the next 16 years, he would prove time and again our first impression was spectacularly wrong.

Will rose to become a partner and senior vice president of institutional equity sales. At any point, he could easily have handed our account to a junior broker. I suspect he was tempted from time to time, but he never did. We formed a bond because we tried to conduct our respective businesses the same way—treating people with dignity and respect and always putting clients’ interests ahead of our own.

Brokers were once called ‘customer’s men,’ an old-fashioned expression that captured an essential truth: they worked for their customers. Will embodied that ideal. He was a trusted professional, a true friend and tireless advocate for us and our clients.

Will was killed in the attack on the World Trade Center. He was 38 and left behind his wife, Maureen, 6-year-old Rebecca and 3-month-old Liam.

Will’s obituary said he almost didn’t go to work on Sept. 11, because he had a stomach bug, but decided to try putting in half a day instead. He considered the World Trade Center among the safest places to work, partly because of security measures implemented after he survived the 1993 terrorist bombing. During that earlier attack, he helped an ailing co-worker descend 104 stories, stopping every few flights to rest.

“That was just so Will, to always be thinking of other people,” Maureen later recalled.

The arbitrary and capricious line between life and death that morning is difficult to comprehend. Howard Lutnick, then Cantor Fitzgerald’s CEO and now U.S. Secretary of Commerce, survived because he took his 5-year-old son to his first day of kindergarten. His younger brother Gary; his best friend, Doug Gardner; Will; and 655 other New York employees of Cantor Fitzgerald were trapped on the 101st to 105th floors of the North Tower and perished.

Will was a New Yorker through and through, but loved visiting Columbus, Indiana. He surprised my wife and me at a gala charity event we co-chaired in 1989, enjoyed staying at the Columbus Inn, grabbing a cold drink at the 4th Street Bar and Grill and golfing at Harrison Lake Country Club and Otter Creek Golf Course.

Wall Street is often portrayed as a place driven by greed. Certainly, the financial world has its share of excess and bad actors. But the financial services industry is mostly filled with ordinary, honest and hardworking people helping companies raise capital, create jobs and grow–and families invest for their futures. Will represented the very best of them.

Twenty-five years later, I still miss Will’s laughter, humanity and expertise. And I still remember that 22-year-old broker with the ironic name (Will Rob?) who became a true friend. I remain forever grateful for the 16 years we shared—and only wish he had been given dozens more.

The New York Times published “Portraits of Grief” as tributes to those killed in the attacks in the following weeks and months.

WILLIAM RAUB
The Creator of Surprises

William Raub loved arranging surprises for his family — a birthday party for his wife, Maureen, a surprise 10th anniversary trip to Little Palm Island in the Florida Keys, and that was just last year. ”He loved planning big surprises and special gifts,” Mrs. Raub said. ”He really got a lot of happiness doing that.”

”He liked to play with his daughter a lot, and take her with him when he did errands, and cook dinner to give me a night off,” she said on the phone from her home in Saddle River, N.J., as her 6-year-old daughter prompted her, then corrected her: ”He liked to make reservations at restaurants.” The couple also has a 5-month-old son.

Mr. Raub, 38, an institutional stock trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, almost didn’t go to work on Sept. 11, because he had a stomach bug, but decided to try putting in half a day. He thought the World Trade Center was the safest building to work in, thanks to security measures after the 1993 bombing, when he helped a flagging co-worker down 104 stories, stopping to rest with him every few flights. ”That was just so Will, to always be thinking of other people,” Mrs. Raub said.

”I’ll never forget, on the night before our wedding, at the rehearsal dinner, he said, ‘Tomorrow I’m marrying my best friend,’ ” she said. ”That said it all.”

The opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author as of the date the article was published. These opinions have not been updated or supplemented and may not reflect the author’s views today. The information provided in these articles are not intended to be a forecast of future events, a guarantee of future results and do not provide information reasonably sufficient upon which to base an investment decision and should not be considered a recommendation to purchase or sell any particular stock or other investment.