Patrick Anderson was inside the Marriott World Trade Center hotel when the towers came down around him on September 11, 2001, and he rushed out wearing only one shoe. Twenty-five years later, the East Lansing economist has turned that morning of chaos into a quiet, decades-long mission: making sure Michigan never forgets the 42 people with ties to the state who died that day.
Anderson focuses on storytelling through his website and the Michigan Remembers 9-11 Fund, according to CBS News Detroit, which reported on his survivor story ahead of the attacks' 25th anniversary. People inside the Marriott were initially told to shelter in place, contemporary reports from the day noted, before Anderson made his way out of the 22-story hotel, which had 825 guest rooms and served as a critical evacuation corridor connecting the North and South Towers, according to Michigan Remembers 9-11. Anderson escaped alongside his colleague Ilhan Geckil, and he later dedicated his academic textbook, Business Economics and Finance, to three FDNY firefighters who guided him out of the building but did not survive its collapse, per SooToday.
A $25,000 Pledge Became a 25-Year Archive
Anderson established the Michigan Remembers 9-11 Fund in 2006 with a $25,000 personal pledge to record survivor oral histories and preserve local connections to the tragedy, the same SooToday report notes. That effort has since grown into a registry of names, pictures and stories of at least 42 people from Michigan who died on 9/11, a number that expanded after research completed in 2020 added 23 individuals to what had previously been a list of 19 recognized victims. The victims came from cities including Detroit, Kalamazoo and Flint, and included people who attended the University of Michigan and Michigan State University.
Anderson's website now includes a map of 9/11 memorials scattered across the state, a project he hopes will help people recognize and reflect on the attacks. He has said the stories are worth reading because the victims were neighbors, and he has called it vital to think back on the people who were lost. Anderson has described the attacks themselves as an evil act carried out by people trying to kill Americans because they hated America.
Physical Monuments Anchor Statewide Remembrance
Among the sites on Anderson's map is Lansing's Wentworth Park, which holds a steel H-beam salvaged from Ground Zero and hosts wreath-laying ceremonies where local officials and survivors gather each year, according to Michigan Remembers 9-11. Farther south, Plymouth Township's Wayne County First Responders Memorial in Hines Park, dedicated in November 2010, serves as a primary Metro Detroit gathering point for annual ceremonies featuring local police honor guards and survivors, per a Plymouth Township announcement. Anderson hopes people will visit these Michigan memorials, read the stories tied to them, and learn about those the state lost.
Anderson's escape that day included a moment of unexpected kindness: he was photographed and comforted on the street by Emily Maroney as debris fell, a reunion later featured in 2018 on the PBS docuseries We'll Meet Again, according to the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy. Outside his volunteer work with the fund, Anderson is principal and CEO of Anderson Economic Group LLC, an East Lansing-based consulting firm founded in 1996 that opened a New York City office on the 15th anniversary of the attacks in 2016, according to MiTechNews. In August, ahead of this year's 25th anniversary, Anderson joined fellow survivors from 3 World Trade Center for a panel discussion at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum Auditorium in New York City.
A Health Toll Still Climbing After 25 Years
Anderson's decades of record-keeping arrive as the health consequences of that day continue to mount. By mid-2026, certified cancer cases among Ground Zero survivors enrolled in the CDC World Trade Center Health Program surpassed certified cases among first responders for the first time, reaching 28,913 cases out of more than 145,000 members, as Hoodline has reported. That milestone underscores why survivor advocacy and record-keeping like Anderson's remain relevant a quarter-century after the attacks, even as the population of people who lived through that morning continues to age and, in some cases, fall ill from exposure at the site.
