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Two Former Duke Athletes Lost In Terrorist Attacks
10/9/2001 1:00:00 AM | Athletics
Oct. 9, 2001
By John Roth
Seconds after a jet airliner crashed into the World Trade Center north tower at 8:48 a.m. on Sept. 11, Rob Lenoir called his wife at home in Locust Valley and answered a call from one of his best friends in Richmond. Peter Ortale was able to phone his wife in SoHo, his mother in Pennsylvania and a friend in California.
Both men were calm as they spoke with their loved ones, seemingly unaware that the airplane strike was anything more than an accident. As a precaution, both were about to evacuate their offices in the World Trade Center's twin south tower.
Neither made it. When another jet torpedoed the second tower at 9:06 a.m., the two former Duke student-athletes became casualties of the devastating terrorist attack that claimed over 6,000 innocent victims and rescue workers.
Lenoir, a defensive tackle for the Duke football team in the early 1980s, was an investment banker for Sandler O'Neill & Partners on the 104th floor of the south tower. Ortale, a Duke lacrosse standout from the mid 1980s, worked as a bonds trader for Eurotraders on the 84th floor of the same tower. They were two of five Duke alumni presumed dead as a result of the Sept. 11 tragedy.
Both were remembered with a moment of silence and a scoreboard tribute at the Duke-Northwestern football game on Sept. 22. Lenoir's family had held a memorial service two days before that, Ortale's family has not yet scheduled a service.
Both left behind stunned friends, grieving families and fellow Blue Devils who remembered them as warm classmates and teammates. "He was just a great guy. Whenever we came to the city, he always took us out to dinner," former lacrosse player Scott Schraff said of Ortale. Schraff and Ortale traveled around Europe together following graduation and last saw each other about four months ago.
"He was the proverbial nice guy, a lot of fun to be around," former football center Philip Ebinger said of Lenoir. "He was a big strong football player, and a guy with a big heart. He was always there."
Lenoir, from Columbia, S.C., lettered for Duke from 1981-83, playing on two of the five Blue Devil football squads to post a winning record in the last two decades. Some consider his most memorable moment in Duke jersey No. 74 as a block he threw on a kickoff return at Tennessee in 1982 to help spring Greg Boone for a 100-yard touchdown in a stirring upset.
Ortale, from Philadelphia, overlapped Lenoir by one year at Duke. He arrived in the fall of 1983, Lenoir's senior season, and went on to letter for the lacrosse program for four years, 1984-87. He earned All-ACC honors as a junior, served as one of the team captains as a senior and made the North-South game as one of the top seniors in the country. Duke won 11 games in each of his last two years, the first time the school had ever posted double-digit victory totals. Near the end of Ortale's senior year, the Devils defeated Virginia and North Carolina in back-to-back games, breaking a streak of 10 straight winless years in ACC play.
Tony Cullen, the former Duke lacrosse star who was head coach during Ortale's career, remembered him as a determined overachiever who was one of the toughest and best players he coached. He was not at all surprised by reports that Ortale had last been seen helping others to a stairway during the World Trade Center evacuation.
Ortale stayed involved with lacrosse after college, playing with some U.S. teams and for the New York Athletic Club after he'd moved there in 1988. He had gotten married a year ago in May and had just spent Labor Day with his wife, Mary, at Sag Harbor.
Ortale also left behind three sisters who, according to news reports, drove to New York with their mother in the aftermath of the attack to search hospitals and information centers while consoling each other and Ortale's wife.
"He's very generous, very strong," one sister told Newsday. "Just a fun-loving guy."
Lenoir also left behind a close family: his wife, Susan, and their two children, Andrew (11) and Courtney (9). According to friendsand family, spending time with his wife and kids was his favorite activity. He would spend all day with them boogie-boarding at the beach and liked to tell them stories about his life in the south. He enjoyed playing chess and scrabble with Andrew, earning the nickname "Lord of the Board." For Courtney's fourth birthday, he rented a dancing teddy bear costume and skated out to meet all her friends.
"He loved making his kids laugh and would embarrass himself in the process," says his wife. "The quality and amount of time he spent with our kids is equal to decades, and for that we are very thankful. We all have many, many wonderful memories."
Susan Lenoir said her husband also liked to tell humorous stories of his life as a Duke football player and still closely followed the Blue Devils from New York.
"He was a huge Duke fan and idolized Shane Battier," she says. "Duke basketball was a must-watch activity in our household."
Lenoir had planned to make a financial contribution to the new Duke football building now under construction. His family has asked that any memorials for him could be donated to the building fund, which Duke officials will use to name a room for him in the new facility.
Along with his immediate family, Lenoir had remained close with his extended Duke family of football teammates and Alpha Tau Omega fraternity brothers. James Schwab, a fraternity brother who is now a prominent New York attorney and close family friend, delivered a eulogy at his memorial service that was attended by several hundred mourners. Many of Schwab's comments came from an e-mail request sent around the country asking for stories about Lenoir from former players and ATOs.
Ebinger said he remembered sitting with Lenoir on a road trip to Virginia during their playing careers, when Lenoir had told him all about a girl he'd just met. It was Susan Haack, who was a freshman in the fall of 1981 when Lenoir was a sophomore - the same Susan who later became his wife.
Also at the memorial service were Lenoir's former roommate Raymond Trice and one of his close friends, Steve Wilson, the son of former Duke coach Red Wilson. Steve now works for Morgan Keegan in its Richmond office and covered many of the same clients Lenoir worked with in his investment job. The two enjoyed rehashing football games on Monday mornings, were close confidants and spoke often on business and personal matters. Wilson called him on Sept. 11 the moment he heard a plane had hit the first tower.
Other friends who couldn't attend the memorial nevertheless took time to remember Lenoir. The night before the service, several participated in a conference call to tell stories about their friend. And at precisely 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, ATOs around the country took time out to raise a glass in his memory.
One of Lenoir's teammates and fraternity brothers is Duke head coach Carl Franks.
"I spoke with Rob's mom a couple of days after (the tragedy)," Franks says. "She was there with his wife and kids. You really don't know how people handle something so difficult. The thing that had really benefitted them was all the people who had called with sympathy and support and prayed for them, the former players and fraternity brothers. You find out how special it is to be a part of a team, whatever that team is - a fraternity, a football team. That gives you a common bond that lasts well beyond your college days."
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