09/11/2026
Never forget
REMEMBERING THE WEST VIRGINIANS WE LOST 25 YEARS AGO TODAY…
As the nation remembers the nearly 3,000 people killed during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, several of those victims had connections to West Virginia.
Among them were West Virginia natives Mary Lou Hague and Dr. Paul Wesley Ambrose, along with former West Virginia University quarterback Chris Gray and WVU graduate Jim Samuel.
Hague, 26, was a native of Parkersburg and a 1992 graduate of Parkersburg High School. She worked for investment banking firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Hague was at work when hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower. She was killed when the building collapsed less than an hour later.
Ambrose, 32, was a Huntington native and graduate of the Marshall University School of Medicine. He was aboard American Airlines Flight 77 on the morning of September 11.
The plane was hijacked after departing Washington Dulles International Airport and crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, killing everyone aboard.
Chris Gray, a former WVU quarterback, was also among those killed in the attacks.
Gray played for the Mountaineers from 1987 through 1991 and later worked for financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald at the World Trade Center. The company’s offices were located high in the North Tower, above the area where American Airlines Flight 11 struck the building.
Jim Samuel, a West Virginia University graduate, was also killed at the World Trade Center during the attacks.
The four were among the 2,977 victims killed in New York City, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 2001.