Remembering 9/11, 25 Years Later: Columbia Professor and Former FDNY Fire Chief Joseph Pfeifer

Joseph Pfeifer stands in the 9/11 Memorial Plaza and describes how, on 9/11, he was 10 blocks north of the World Trade Center, and he looked up when he heard a plane. It was flying so low that he could see the word “American” on the fuselage. He saw the plane aim toward the North Tower. “It was no accident, but a direct hit.”

As the first battalion chief to report to the World Trade Center on that day, Pfeifer ordered firefighters to evacuate the people in the building. One of the firefighters he sent into the towers was his brother, Kevin, who died that day.

Since 2002, Pfeifer has been part of the Columbia University community. He teaches Principles of Crisis Leadership. What did it mean then, and what does it mean now? How do we use those principles?

“Leadership in a crisis,” says Pfeifer, “is not one person standing on a hill and giving orders. Leadership is bringing people together, collaborating, and then coordinating to deal with the problem at hand.” As he wrote in his memoir about 9/11, leadership is really about “Ordinary Heroes,” which is the title of his book.

The Columbia community, says Pfeifer, is part of his resilience, a place where he can share his message. “It’s where we can remember the people we lost on 9/11, and the people we saved. We also remember 9/12, when the world came together for New York City.”

To read more about Joseph Pfeifer and his teaching experience at Columbia, visit https://news.columbia.edu/news/what-911-hero-can-teach-columbia-sipa-students-about-crisis-leadership.