Rick Rescorla

Richard Cyril Rescorla (May 27, 1939 – September 11, 2001) was a British-American soldier, police officer, educator and private security specialist. He served as a British Army paratrooper during the Cyprus Emergency and a commissioned officer in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. He rose to the rank of colonel in the Army before entering the private sector, where he worked in corporate security.

As the director of security for the financial services firm Morgan Stanley at the World Trade Center, Rescorla anticipated attacks on the towers and implemented evacuation procedures that were credited with saving thousands of lives. He died during the attacks of September 11, 2001, going back to help evacuate more people in the South Tower after he had organized the evacuation of the Morgan Stanley offices.

Early life

Rescorla was born in Hayle, Cornwall, on May 27, 1939. He grew up there with his grandparents and his mother, who worked as a housekeeper and companion to the elderly. In 1943, during World War II, the town of Hayle served as headquarters for the 175th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. 29th Infantry Division, largely composed of U.S. soldiers from Maryland and Virginia preparing for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. A young Rescorla idolized the U.S. soldiers and wanted to become a soldier because of them.

Rescorla was a natural sportsman, setting a school record in the shot put, and was an avid boxer. When a professional boxing match was scheduled between a British boxer and a U.S. heavyweight contender named Tami Mauriello, his friends backed the Briton. Rescorla said "I'm for Tammy" [sic] and after Mauriello won the fight, everyone in Hayle knew him as "Tammy".