Curt:
In 2006 I took part in the 2,996 project. A project to have bloggers remember an individual that died on that horrific day 12 years ago. I was assigned Aram Iskendarian. This is a repost of my tribute: (There are still many tributes to be written of those who died that day. I am choosing another one to do today, please consider doing the same and sending me the post to put up.)
I am honored to present my memorial to Aram Iskendarian.
As I’ve spent the last few weeks doing research on this man I came to the realization that I wish I would have known him. He was a natural born leader with a calm exterior and a devoted father and husband to his family. A man I would have looked up to.
Aram was 41 the day he died. He was a vice president at Cantor Fitzgerald, where he headed the global risk management group. That day he would have been working on the 101st floor of building 1.
From the little I have been able to glean about his personal life I’ve learned he was a photobug and apparently always had a camera nearby to take pictures of his wife Sheri and their four children, Meryl, Kara, Alex and Jason.
When I first set out to learn about Aram the first webpage that I came across was this one, in which Sheri leaves a note for her husband:
I miss you more than words can I express. You were the love of my life. The children and I hope that you are at peace and did not suffer. Love Sheri
They were high school sweethearts:
The former Sheri Pearlman met her future husband when both were 15 and sophomores at Lynbrook High School. In a tribute delivered at Iskenderian’s funeral, Sheri’s brother, Ted Pearlman of Syosset, recalled his sister complaining about a boy at school who bothered her and pulled her hair.
“Little did we know,” Pearlman wrote, “that this would be the start of a great romance.”
They stayed together through graduation and through college, when he attended the University of Rochester and she was at Tufts in Massachusetts. They were married on Dec. 18, 1983.
Iskenderian was the “epitome of a modern day father” who changed diapers, put his children to bed and taught them about birds, his wife said. The couple has two daughters, Meryl, 11, and Kara, 8.
He gave blood 17 times and was planning to ride in a Sept. 23 bike-a-thon to raise money for a co-worker with multiple sclerosis. Last month, the family’s synagogue, Temple Beth Am in Merrick, held a blood drive in his honor.
This article appeared in the NYT’s about Aram:
