Todd Beamer: 9/11 Hero

Written by Greg Asimakoupoulos

David Beamer, chief operating officer for Legato Systems, reported to work early on September 11, 2001, at corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California. Having flown to California the day before, he was there for a key meeting to be held in Palo Alto that morning.

The phone rang. It was a colleague from Munich calling to relay news regarding the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. David could not have imagined how the twisted plot of a group of terrorists that had taken the lives of thousands of innocent people would impact his family as well. With a prayer for the people in New York, he proceeded to Palo Alto for a full day of discussions. While David was in the middle of his meeting, Peggy, his high- school sweetheart and wife, was learning the terrible, confirmed truth about United Airlines Flight 93 and their son, Todd.

“When Peggy called to tell me that Todd was on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, I was stunned with disbelief,” David recalls. “My heart was breaking, and my mind was in denial. With friends surrounding me, I sensed the Lord’s strength sustaining me.”

More than anything, David wanted to be home to comfort Peggy and to be near his daughter-in-law, Lisa, and two grandsons, David and Andrew. But he couldn’t. The moratorium on air travel prevented him from flying home. A friend graciously volunteered to help him drive home from California to Washington, D.C., so he could join the rest of the Beamer family at Todd’s memorial service in New Jersey on Sunday, September 16.

As details of Flight 93 became public, what David learned about his son’s final moments of life filled his broken heart with gratitude and pride. He discovered how Todd used an in-flight phone to call a GTE operator and pray with her, in addition to relaying a farewell message to Lisa. He also found out that it was Todd who led a group of passengers to take command of Flight 93 from the terrorists before they could fly the Boeing 757 into the White House or U.S. Capitol. It was his son who signaled the uprising with those now famous words, “Let’s roll!”

“Todd prayed the Lord’s Prayer with that operator because it was a way of reminding himself that his Heavenly Father is in control and the source of our strength,” David surmises. “His mom had taught him to pray that prayer since the time Todd was a toddler. Curiously, in the weeks leading up to September 11, Todd and Lisa had been studying the implications of the Lord’s Prayer in their small-group Bible study.”

Todd was David and Peggy Beamer’s middle child (and only son). While his dad worked hard to pave the foundation of a successful career, his mom willingly stayed at home to nurture Todd and his two sisters in strong family values and the Christian faith. Together, his parents modeled a lifestyle that prioritized weekly worship and looking to God’s Word as the ultimate guide for decision-making.

“We raised Todd to love the Lord,” David says. “Passing on the baton of faith was a priority in our home with all three kids. Both my folks and Peggy’s folks are committed Christians. That’s a legacy we don’t take lightly. Before we became parents, we determined to honor and preserve the heritage of Christian faith.”

David Beamer may have worked hard at his career, but he was there for his kids. He and Peggy worked to create an atmosphere in their home where Todd and his sisters, Melissa and Michele, were disciplined to know the difference between right and wrong. “We didn’t prevent our kids from knowing the consequences that are associated with making poor choices,” David says. “But we also made sure that we capitalized on the joys of being a family. We taught our kids to support and love each other while finding ways to have fun and develop a healthy sense of humor.”

One way David practiced the sermon he preached on family values was making room in his busy corporate schedule for his son’s athletic interests. He was there for most of Todd’s baseball, basketball, and soccer games. Recognizing his son’s athletic skills, he encouraged his abilities and celebrated his strengths as coach and mentor.

“As far as I’m concerned, if a dad is determined to equip his kids with spiritual values that will shape their adult choices, he needs to be there when they need him,” David says. “And that means making a commitment as a family to stay together, support and defend each other. The example of commitment is caught by our children a whole lot more than it is taught.”

To listen to David Beamer talk, you sense how grateful he is to the Lord for giving him 32 years with a boy, who, although not perfect, was in every sense an ideal son. As a result of his Christian upbringing and Todd’s education at Wheaton Grammar School, Wheaton Academy, and then Wheaton College (where he met his wife, Lisa), his father recognizes the obvious way Todd learned to integrate his faith into his daily life and professional decisions.

“The reason Todd acted with conviction and courage in those extraordinary moments when Flight 93 was falling to the ground was because he had maintained his integrity and values in the ordinary moments of his life. My son was not only an all-American, handsome young man,” David Beamer beams, “but he was an exemplary husband and terrific dad.”

Todd’s dad says that the most difficult part of making peace with his son’s untimely death is the fact that his grandsons (and now little Morgan Kay, born four months after September 11) won’t have the benefit of Todd being there as their dad to help raise them.

The devastating loss of Todd continues to be felt in the Beamer family. A year after the tragic events that left our nation forever changed, the likable, athletic, highly competitive Sunday School teacher and successful young business executive is dearly missed. Still, in the midst of the questions, doubts, pain and sorrow, the grace of God has been demonstrated in countless ways.

“It’s obvious that the Lord has used Todd’s death (and the events of September 11) to draw people to Himself,” David says. “Peggy, Lisa and I have been given amazing opportunities to talk about God, the promise of eternal life, and the calmness and assurance He can bring. Through interviews with the likes of Diane Sawyer, Stone Phillips, Larry King, and Charlie Gibson, millions of Americans have heard how God brings good out of evil, and how, with His help, you can carry on after the worst day of your life.”

Even with the knowledge that God is at work in their lives redeeming their pain, David Beamer approaches the first anniversary of his son’s death looking forward to the glory of heaven like never before. “I can hardly wait to be reunited with Todd and to see our Savior. As the gospel hymn we sometimes sing in church declares, ‘what a day of rejoicing that will be.’ ”

Greg Asimakoupoulos is a freelance writer in Naperville, Illinois.

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