Jane Doyle’s story

Jane Doyle graduated from UT with a degree in finance in 1976. She worked in Houston on 9/11 and was about to leave home for a meeting when she saw on the Today Show that a plane had hit the north tower. Initially, reports indicated it may have been a small plane accident, but Doyle had flown small aircraft recreationally for years, and she knew that couldn’t be right. 

“I thought, ‘No, you don’t aim for a building,’” Doyle said. “You try for a water landing, like the miracle on the Hudson.”

Her husband, who worked in downtown Houston, was evacuated from his high-rise out of fear that such an oil-centric city could be a potential target. After the ground stop was issued, halting air traffic for the first time nationwide in American history, military jets soared over the Houston skyline on patrol. In the coming days, news reports on those who died began to trickle in, and Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, a Houston native, was memorialized on local news. Doyle recognized her face almost instantly.

“Turns out, her parents lived about two or three blocks from my sister’s house, and about a quarter (to) half mile from where I lived, and that her parents went to my church,” Doyle said. “I could have seen her at the HEB when she was in high school or at church, or maybe even when she was a student at UT, (coming) home for Christmas or something.”

Doyle encouraged former UT President Jay Hartzell to honor the three alumni who lost their lives on 9/11 with a memorial plaque. The plaque was unveiled on the 20th anniversary of the attacks and stands outside of the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center. Doyle hoped that a UT student born after 9/11 might stumble across the sign and realize the scope of that day’s impacts. 

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