On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Andrew Kates, a 1981 graduate of Cheltenham High School, left his New York City home to work on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center North where he was employed as a senior managing editor for the securities firm Cantor Fitzgerald.

According to local historian Chuck Langerman, Kates grew up on Greenwood Avenue in Wyncote, and competed on the soccer, debating, and math teams at CHS. He left behind his wife Emily, his daughters Hannah and Lucy, and his son Henry.

From his profile published by The New York Times on September 22, 2001:

On the Saturday morning before Sept. 11, Andrew Kates woke up to find his three children bouncing on the bed, all ready to play. “He just looked right at me and said, ‘I love our family,’ ” said his wife, Emily Terry.

He spent every spare moment with his two daughters and son, ages 5, 3 and 1. He gave them piggyback rides around their Upper West Side apartment. They played hide-and-seek. Every weekend last winter, he packed hot chocolate and took the two older ones, Hannah and Lucy, ice skating for hours in Central Park.

An athletic 37-year-old, he had brown hair, green eyes and dimples creasing both cheeks. His son, Henry, looks a lot like him. He managed to see the best in every situation, whether it was at home or on the job at Cantor Fitzgerald in 1 World Trade Center, where he was a senior managing director.

Perhaps it sounds like a cliché, his wife said, but he did manage to enjoy life to the fullest. “He is one of the people I know who had very few regrets about his life.”

“As the 23rd anniversary of the terrorist attacks approaches, please take a moment to pause and remember Andrew and the other men, women, and children who lost their lives in the September 11 attacks,” Langerman said.

You can read past tributes to Kates’ life here.

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