On the way up to the meeting, Peck recalls a colleague in his group questioning whether the meeting was on the 90th, 63rd or 30th floor.

When they checked their itinerary, they discovered the meeting was on the 63rd floor. “Everybody remembers that. Had the meeting been on the 90th floor [above where the American Airlines jet struck the building], it would have turned out completely differently,” Peck says.

But the meeting never got underway. Peck, the first scheduled speaker, recalls that shortly after he put some brochures on the table, “all of a sudden the building just shook." It was about 8:45 a.m. 

Peck grabbed the chair next to him and locked eyes with one of his partners in the room. “We both just thought the building was going to fall,” he says.

After 10 seconds, the building stopped shaking. Thinking a bomb had gone off, everyone in the conference room made a mad dash for the door, as tiles and dust dropped from the ceiling. “It was two quick rights out of the conference room, and I was in that stairwell in about 20 seconds,” Peck says.

What he was thinking, he says, was, "just run, run, run!"

Peck recalls seeing firefighters, police officers and plainclothes security people going up, as they made their way down. "Those are the faces I remember the most,” he says.

When he finally made it outside, police were ushering the crowd away from the scene, but “thousands of people were just standing in shock.”

The south tower, struck by a United Airlines jet shortly after 9 a.m., was collapsing. 

With the help of a man on the train, Peck managed to get to a Hertz office and rent a car for about $300.

Home, At Last

Peck reads an article detailing his experience. He says it was a story that had to be shared. (Photo by Kim Harris)

Six hours later, Peck pulled into his driveway in Timonium. “It was almost nine hours from when the plane hit. I was able to hug my wife and [three] kids. It was pretty amazing,” he says. 

Peck took a picture of himself, his wife, and his two youngest children, before they were tucked into bed.

He and his wife "still get choked up about when we think about the conversation she might have had to have explaining to 3-year-old Morgan why her daddy wasn't coming home," Peck says. "We both know how close that really was."

"We are both very much aware of how different things could have been," agrees Tricia Peck, 38. "We are ... just trying to make the most of the time that we have."

Steve Peck says he doesn't want to live paralyzed with fear. "I will be getting on a plane either the next week or the week after next," he says. "I am ready to go."

He also plans to return to New York soon, for business. "I will take the train as I did [for] Sept. 11 and plan to allow time to visit ground zero,” he says.

Meanwhile, his home life has been undergoing changes. Peck says he and his wife of more than seven years are much closer and “work very hard to stay on the same side" when dealing with daily issues. 

“She and I have real conversations, beyond the how-was-your-day kind of talks. We hug each other tighter every day,” he says.

As for his children, Peck says while the two youngest--Noah, 17 months, and Morgan,  3--are too young to tell the difference, “dad hugs them tighter than ever now.” 

Peck's eldest son, Steve, pictured with brother Noah. (Photo courtesy Steve Peck)

Peck says his eldest son, Steve, 14, has done a pretty good job communicating "that he was glad dad was still around."

Peck says he thinks more now about the small stuff. "I value each moment spent with the people I care for. Whether  it's an early morning with the kids, a date with my wife, a round of golf with my buds, or just 15 minutes over coffee with a long-lost friend ... I make sure I take in the moment fully."

On Sept. 19, Peck turned 41. "That was a day I would have worked," he says. Instead he left a message on his work voice mail saying he would be gone all day.

That day, the only call he returned was to the eight other coworkers who had been in the World Trade Center with him Sept. 11. 

"It was a chance not to cry, because we are all guys, but to commiserate and laugh a little, fill in the gaps.

"The bond is very strong between all of us."

 
 

 

 

 

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Published 12/12/01; last updated: 12/13/01 02:12 PM

 

Special report produced by Sonia Kumar, Kim Harris and Kathleen Johnston; edited by Chris Harvey (Web) and Steve Crane and Adrianne Flynn (print). Banner graphic by Sonia Kumar.

Copyright © 2001 University of Maryland College of Journalism. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.