"First and foremost I must make clear that the gentleman I am about to pay tribute to was not an aquaintence of mine unfortunately for me, but I have yet attempted to compile to the best of my ability a small capsule of his life assembled through public records that are unusually available due to the nature of his unfortunate public and absolutely undeserved demise. "To and for all of those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001:
be it mothers, fathers, either children or parents, friends or even foe of the lost, we all here in America had a piece of our hearts ripped out that day. The innocent victims of these brutal cowardly attacks were all caught in the crosshairs of a misguided and misinterpreted, discombobulated ideology that in it's present form threatens all of civilization if not subdued or eradicated thoroughly and swiftly by our brave fighting men and women charged with the protection of freedom both here at home and for even the undeserved as well.
On this September 11th, 2006 I am proud to be one of the privileged 3000 plus bloggers who are taking part in an effort to memorialize each and every victim of 9-11, individually but yet collectively as part of this 2996 memorial project. We the participating bloggers' commemorating these victims of that day on this 5 year anniversary, are attempting something different and yet hopefully moving, cyber tributes unlike any before and presented to those lost and their loved ones that are all hopefully worthy of their blessing.I have been selected to pay tribute to the good on the left named Eddie A. Dillard, who like all the rest of us that day, simply awoke to perform what was his daily routine per say, I'm sure giving his best to be an everyday yet American heading out to work that day, doing what all good citizens do or at least hope to do, that being making an honest living for he and his family and secondly doing his part to make this country the best it can be.
In Eddie Dillard's case that day he was the beginning of a normally routine business trip from Dulles Airport in Washington aboard American Airlines Flight 77 to inspect several of his real estate investments on the West Coast. However, he wasn't always involved in wheeling and dealing Real Estate transactions, as a matter of fact this was strangely enough this man's way of taking it easy, his way of retiring. He had spent most of his adult life prior as a marketing manager with Phillip Morris Corporation, a successful 20 year career all in itself that he completed just a few years previous to that year of 2001. (source,newsday)
Going Back, Mr. Eddie A. Dillard was born in Alabama, but later became a native of Gary, Indiana, that small yet well known midwestern town mostly recognized mostly for it's steel industry and the hard working families that labor long hours over the years in not so great conditions by today's standards hoping to achieve and fulfill the American dream in the local steel mills. The most famous of Gary's residents to escape the hard existence would be the Jackson family as most know, but lesser known folks made their way through the hard times as well and that included Mr Dillard.
Eddie A. Dillard first attended Tennessee State University and then completed his college undergraduate studies at Bishop College, earning a BA of science while minoring in marketing in addition to being a member of the Kappa Alpha Phi fraternity on campus.
Eddie then left college degreed and his first job was with the well known Southland Corp. in Dallas, Texas. After paying some dues he later opened his very own 7-11 store in East Palo Alto, Ca. After this stage of his life he then moved on putting his degree to work at Phillip Morris, where he worked until his above mentioned retirement in 1997 as a District Manager, giving them 19 solid years of his very accomplished life.
(Pic / Mrs. Rosemary Dillard)That much one would think would be enough for most, but Mr. Dillard at this point decided to try his hand at real estate investing in retirement while simultaneously relocating to to Alexandria Viginia in order to unselfishly enable his devoted wife of 15 years, Rosemary, to embark upon her new job assignment in Alexandria Virginia in February of 2001. She was at that time taking a new position with American Airlines, whom she had been already employed to then manage American's flight crews out of the three Washington-area based airports. Here are some of her reflections on that day.
Had Mr Dillard been an easy to please kind of man and not the success driven man of achievement one might have found him fishing or golfing on the day of September 11th, year 2001. But this man was heading out that day to inspect some properties he had just purchased in California. His wife had seen him off that morn at Dulles where he was catching American Airlines flight 77, headed for Los Angeles with 64 people aboard. Please keep in mind that Eddie's wife Rosemary worked for the airline and was the direct supervisor of the flight crew aboard that plane on that particular day. She was also involved in much victim activism after 9-11, even appearing as a witness at the trial of Zacharias Moussaoui during the sentencing phase. She is also quoted in the 9-11 report.
Eddie's survivors include his wife Rosemary; son Edrick; two brothers and a sister. The events that would follow from this point on we are all too well aware of, and that is why we in fact are here paying tribute to this wonderful man, husband, father, friend of many........ who found himself a victim of circumstance beyond belief as I started to articulate in the paragraph above this.
We participating in this tribute have chosen to focus on each victim's lives of which we all know way too little about, as opposed to the brutal undeserved and unprovoked endings of these stories which we all know much too well. These in fact were all fellow human beings which the filthy perpetrators of those unspeakable acts seem to have forgotten or more likely ignored on that morning forever ingrained in our souls and conscience.
I pray that you, after reading this heartfelt but yet somewhat distant tribute, (as I never had the pleasure and or the privilege of meeting this man), have learned something about Mr. Eddie Dillard, father, husband, co-worker, cousin, fellow human being who had no business (nor did any of the other 9-11 victims) of being the topic of this I'm sure somewhat inadequate rememberance today.
This remembrance is given by someone he neither knew or ever met, but yet somehow after learning a bit about him I feel that if we could possibly cross each others paths and subsequently shake hands he would or might say to me, "Hi My Name is Eddie and I'm Pleased to Meet You".
And I would said to he, "thank you sir, but the pleasure is all mine".
** You can read Mr Dillard's Guest Book at Legacy.com
** And here you will find more tributes to Mr Dillard At September 11 Victims
** In addition Mr Dillard's United Memory Quilt tribute can be seen here along with all the other victims.
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