Ocean City's 9/11 Benches: 'It's My Duty to See That People Notice'

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared for the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Ocean City Patch is re-running the story for the 14th anniversary of that tragic day.

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When the U.S. was attacked 10 years ago on Sept. 11 and almost 3,000 lost their lives, many people vowed to avoid the date in the future.

For years afterward, engaged couples rejected the date for their wedding ceremonies. Expectant mothers asked their doctors to reschedule their C-sections, not wanting their babies to share a birth date associated with national tragedy.

People with established ties to the date, though, had no such options.

“When that event happened, I felt so connected to it,” said Shelleymarie Magan, whose 34th birthday was Sept. 11, 2001. “Any time that date 9/11 shows up, on a digital clock, on a microwave, I notice it.

“For a while I didn’t know what to do. Have a birthday? Have a half birthday? Have a red, white and blue birthday cake? Then nine years ago, on the first anniversary of 9/11, I took cookies and candy to the Sixth Street firehouse,” said Magan, a 10-year Ocean City resident whose home on the island’s north end puts that firehouse among the city’s three in closest proximity to her.

She expanded on that patriotic gesture a few years ago when she started decorating the Boardwalk memorial bench of Robert J. Coll Jr., a 35-year-old Glen Ridge, NJ, resident who was last seen on Sept. 11, 2001, on the 80th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center, helping a woman in respiratory distress who wanted to climb higher to avoid the smoke.

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Read more on the September 11th Anniversary
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Coll had continued his boyhood tradition of summering in Ocean City into his adulthood, bringing his wife and two young children on vacations here.

The plaque on Coll’s bench, on the west side of the 1600 block of the Boardwalk, reads:

Robert J. Coll

Bobby

December 29, 1965 – September 11, 2001

Acknowledged hero in the W.T.C. disaster

Forever in our hearts … The Coll Family

Last year, Magan also started decorating the Boardwalk memorial bench of Richard M. Blood Jr., a 38-year-old resident of Ridgewood, NJ, whose plaque—unlike Coll’s—mentions a connection to Ocean City.

Blood, too, was in the South Tower on Sept. 11, 2001, last seen on the 105th floor around 9 a.m. A co-worker who survived the attack on the towers later told USA Today that Blood would not leave the site until everyone else had.

“I’m the fire marshal for the floor,” the co-worker, quoted in the one-year anniversary story printed on USAToday.com, recalled Blood as saying. Employees had been designated as fire wardens after the Feb. 26, 1993, attack on the WTC, when terrorists detonated a truck bomb in a basement parking garage.

“I can’t go until you go, and I want to go. So come on, everybody,” the co-worker remembered Blood saying. “And he said it with a smile.”

Magan discovered both benches on the Boardwalk the same way: while jogging.

“I stopped dead in my tracks because of the date,” she said. And while she noticed Coll’s bench three or four years ago, it is Blood’s bench on the east side of the 600 block, which she first noticed last year, that speaks more directly to her.

“That one is really special to me because it is across from Wonderland and children are so important to me,” said the nine-year school administrator who, after eight years at the David C. Douglass Veterans Memorial School in Villas, became principal this year of the Carl T. Mitnick School in Cape May.

The plaque on Blood’s bench reads:

Richard M. Blood Jr. (Rick)

September 11, 2001

In loving memory of a wonderful husband, father, son, brother, uncle and brother-in-law

Thanks for all the love, good times in Ocean City and a lifetime of memories.

You will be in our hearts forever.

We love and miss you, Kris, Michael, Madeline, Ralph, Mom, Dad, Becky, Duncan,

Taylor, Ricky, Billy, Johanna, Stevie & Ranee

On July 4 this year, Magan revealed the part she plays in decorating the benches with this post on Legacy.com: “I decorated the memorial benches in Ocean City the day bin Laden was killed. Many people stopped to ask about Bobby. Since I didn’t know him personally, I said what I always say when I jog by his bench, ‘God bless this great American hero and his family.’ “

“That was quite a day to celebrate for the families,” Magan said of May 1, when, after a 10-year hunt, U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “I felt that justice had been done for them.”

Magan and her fiancé, Stephen van Natter, were in New York City on Saturday for the 10th anniversary of 9/11, fitting in as many memorial events as they could. Between her visit to the new 9/11 Memorial and a performance in Battery Park that was to feature a dance number choreographed specifically for 9/11 by one of her former dance students, Magan was told by phone of the existence of additional 9/11 memorial benches on Ocean City’s main stretch of Boardwalk.

“I feel so bad,” she said instantly. “But I cannot wait to get back to Ocean City to decorate their benches. I will be so honored and proud to do it.”

The east side of the 1000 block of the Boardwalk has memorial benches dedicated to John Michael Rodak, 39, of Sewell, NJ, and Timothy P. Soulas, 35, of Basking Ridge, NJ. Rodak was on the 104th floor of the South Tower, which was the second tower hit but the first to fall, and Soulas was on the 105th floor of the North Tower when the attacks occurred.

The plaque on Rodak’s bench reads:

John Michael Rodak

WTC 9-11-01

We will forever hear your laughter and

see your smiles.

The Rodak and Kenish Families

The plaque on Soulas’ bench reads:

Timothy P. Soulas

If you can not live without me, then

Let me live on in your eyes and

your mind and your acts of kindness.

August 11, 1966 -- September 11, 2001

Both men had ties to Ocean City. Rodak’s brother-in-law, in his eulogy published on americanmemorials.com, said of the father of two that “Rodak valued the days he spent with his family in Ocean City, NJ, on the beach or in a boat with ‘the engines running.’ He would say, ‘It doesn’t get better than this.’ “

According to a profile published in the Star-Ledger of Newark, five of the six Soulas siblings, their spouses and 14 of their children had congregated at father Fred Soulas’ bayfront home for the city’s annual Night in Venice boat parade, held in 2001 on July 21, six weeks before Timothy was killed. Timothy Soulas was the father of five with a sixth child due six months after he died.

“Somehow, I feel it’s my duty to see that people notice,” Magan said, explaining her practice of decorating the Boardwalk’s 9/11 memorial benches with red, white and blue ribbons, bows and banners. “I feel like I’m responsible to make sure people never forget.”

She can consider her mission accomplished. On June 14 of this year, Frances Fox posted, in part, on 9-11heroes.us: “My family and I have just returned from our annual weeklong vacation in Ocean City and, once again, paused in front of the bench memorializing Robert Coll. This year, it was decorated with a red, white and blue banner.”

Even before Magan began decorating Blood’s bench at Sixth Street, it was noticed by visitors to town. On Sept. 11, 2008, Jill Strafaci posted, in part, on 9-11heroes.us: “My family and I vacationed in Ocean City, NJ, this past August. I bought my young daughters some ice cream, and they sat down on a bench to eat. I was able to read the memorial plaque on the bench, and saw the names of so many family members who missed and loved Richard Blood, who died on 9-11. … I will be sure to visit the bench again each summer on my annual vacation and will say a special prayer for Richard.”

“It’s not about me,” said Magan, who has never met any of the men’s families. “It’s about the people who died that day. I’m just a good Samaritan keeping their legacy going. I’m connected to the date. I’m connected to the tragedy. I feel strongly about their heroism, and as principal of 450 students, I feel blessed to have the chance to teach children respect for their country.”