Remembering 9/11
Friends of Ken Waldie keep his legacy alive
Terry Crump of Bethel Park once celebrated Sept. 11. Today, he grieves, remembers and toasts a lost companion.
Friday marks Crump’s 71st birthday and the death of Ken Waldie.
Twenty-five years ago, Waldie boarded American Airlines Flight 11 in Boston but less than 45 minutes later the hijacked plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. All aboard were instantly killed and all above the 91st floor perished. Nearly 3,000 victims died during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that targeted the Pentagon as well.
“I look at the date differently now,” said Crump. “Every Sept. 11 since then, I wake up at 7 in the morning, have a beer and salute Kenny.”
Crump remembers the day as if it were yesterday. He had just finished his 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift at the Allegheny County jail.
“I was lying in bed and watching TV. I remember not believing what I saw. I said to my wife, ‘Wow, that plane just hit the building.’ I didn’t know until later that Kenny was on that flight.”
Eleven days later on Sept. 22, Crump and a group of his former Bethel Park High School classmates attended a memorial service and gathering for Waldie.
“A bunch of us. Frankie (DelPercio), Mac (Steve McGinnis), Tom (Skladany), Al (Cardamone) and Rick (Shademan) packed into my Dodge van and drove nine to 10 hours to Boston,” Crump recalled. “It was the biggest funeral ever. More than 1,500 people. They packed the church and they videotaped the service downstairs for the overflow crowd.”
Crump noted the outpouring spoke to the impact Waldie had made upon others. He certainly left a lasting impression on Crump.
The two had known each other since age 8 when they began swimming on the Bethel Park AAU team. By 1973, they were WPIAL champions on the Bethel Park High School swim team.
“Ken was a much better swimmer than me,” Crump said. “He was the guy that swam against everybody else’s best swimmer. He could do all the strokes and nine times out of 10, he beat them all.
“He was a fierce competitor, but he also knew how to have fun. I remember pulling on the lane ropes and fooling around in practices when we weren’t supposed to as well as doing all those drills. The 100s in two minutes. The 30, 50s on the minute. It was tough and he was tough. He did amazing things.”
Waldie took his talents to the U.S. Naval Academy. In addition to swimming for the Midshipmen, Waldie served as class president for four years at Annapolis.
After fulfilling his five-year military commitment, Waldie used his mathematics degree to gain employment with Raytheon Corporation. While working, he earned a masters degree and graduated first in his class.
Forty-six at the time of his death, Waldie left behind a wife, Carol, three sons, Andrew, Jeffrey and Jonathan, and a daughter, Meredith, along with a brother, Jack, and three sisters, Jane, Mary Louise and Grace.
“Kenny was a great guy. A heck of an athlete,” Crump said. “He’d do anything for you. A funny guy. A good guy to be around. Somebody you could depend on.”
WALDIE SCHOLARSHIP
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- Sam Hoppe (second from left) is pictured with his parents, Leslie and Wayne Hoppe as well as Terry Crump (holding plaque), Steve McGinnis and Frank DelPercio after receiving the 2026 Ken Waldie Scholarship Award. Crump, McGinnis and DelPercio were instrumental in founding the Friends of Waldie group and establishing the scholarship, which has generated more than a quarter of a million dollars.
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- In this collage, Ken Waldie is shown after helping Bethel Park High School win a WPIAL swimming championship in 1973, wearing his dress uniform in his U.S. Naval Academy class photo, and in a memorial after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
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- Ken Waldie served as class president of the United States Naval Academy for four years and spoke during commencement exercises in the presence of then-president Jimmy Carter.
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- Ken Waldie (left) served as best man in the wedding of Steve McGinnis (right). Waldie and McGinnis were classmates, graduating from Bethel Park High School in 1973.
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- In this photo, Ken Waldie, wearing a red T-shirt, is surrounded by his Bethel Park High School friends. From left are Terry Crump, Frank Del Percio, Rick Schademan and Steve McGinnis. Waldie was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. His friends launched a scholarship fund in his memory that awards financial aid to Bethel Park High School students.
Shortly after Waldie’s funeral, Crump, McGinnis and DelPercio helped organize the Friends of Waldie group and established a Ken Waldie Memorial Fund to distribute scholarships to distinguished seniors for their college pursuits.
In Waldie’s honor more than $250,000 has been awarded to 25 Bethel Park High School students. Additionally, the group contributed substantially to The Almanac’s Waldie/Shaeffer Scholarship Award.
The fund and scholarship ended this spring when $23,000 was awarded to Samuel Hoppe, who was captain of the swim team, competed in tennis and participated in the marching band. Athletically, he was a WPIAL medalist in the 500-yard freestyle as well as the 200 medley relay. He also was a PIAA state qualifier in both events.
Academically, he was an AP Scholar with Distinction. He maintained a 4.57 GPA. Hoppe also was vice president of the Math Club and a recipient of the Princeton Book Award.
The 18-year-old son of Leslie and Wayne Hoppe is a freshman at Penn State University. He is majoring in nuclear engineering.
Noting that the stipend was enough to pay off his first-year tuition as well as possibly his second term, Hoppe was grateful to start his first two years debt free but equally “honored” to receive the award.
“I did tons of research on Mr. Waldie and he was such an impressive person and I know how hard it is to go to the Naval Academy because I have friends that go there,” Hoppe said.
“I won’t lie and say finance was not a part of it, but I applied for the scholarship also because of it respecting Mr. Waldie’s legacy. I am extremely grateful for the scholarship fund and hope that in the future, I can push it forward.”
Because Sept. 11 is history to Hoppe, he said that he gained an inkling of how “awful” the day was and the toll it took on Americans when he attended orientation at Penn State.
“There were more than 2,000 students in this one room and for a second, I did think how incredible that number was, similar to those in New York City. That really put things into perspective for me.
“Sept. 11 was tragic overall, and I respect the people who went back into those buildings to help out and didn’t come out.”
Today, Hoppe thinks the country has come out of the tragedy with mixed reviews. The country “changed massively” safety-wise, he says, because of the security checks put in place. “Totally worth it,” he said.
Hoppe, though, noted that “strained” foreign relations and forgetting the past are jeopardizing safety.
“I think it won’t happen again as long as we are cautious and we don’t relax on security, but part of the country is starting to forget about (9/11),” he said. “People need to remember what happens when we forget about safety precautions.
“And, as sad as it is to say,” he continued, “there’s always a certain group that wants to hurt others. The world would be easier if people loved and respected each other.”
ETERNAL LEGACY
That Waldie’s name remains on people’s lips and his life is memorialized by others touches the heart of Jane Wrenshall. She is one of Waldie’s three sisters.
A Bethel Park Hall of Fame inductee, like her brother, Wrenshall swam and set records at Michigan State while her sister Grace competed at Kent State. In addition to Mary Louise, Waldie also had a brother, Jack, who was a wrestler as well as football and baseball player at Bethel Park.
“In a blink of an eye, Kenny was gone. It was tragic, but the fact that we are still talking about him 25 years later is incredible,” Wrenshall said. “The fact that we have not forgotten about him is a real tribute to him and we owe it to his friends.
“What started out as simply remembering the friendship became so much more,” she said, and added that the scholarship “has benefited a generation.”
Wrenshall initially screened applications for the scholarships, but her sister, Mary Louise, took over the readings. She noted how exceptional the candidates have been.
“It’s sad to think how long Kenny has been gone and how it’s such a tragedy because he missed out on so much. His oldest son is 46, and all the kids are married and there are 11 grandkids, but when you read about these kids, who are so smart, so impressive and some going to academies, and have gotten to know him through the scholarships, it hard not to think about the legacy he left and that continues because of his friends, family and the country.”
On Sept. 11, Wrenshall will begin the day the same way she did 25 years ago. She will attend Mass at St. Sebastian Church, pray for the country, her brother and all the victims of 911.
“I do remember that day. We were going to have a special dinner with cake for my daughter’s birthday,” she began. “I remember going out to the store and, of course, they had the TV on. I called my mother and told her to watch and then I went to Mass at noon. I kept thinking about Kenny, but I had no idea why. Maybe because I knew he traveled a lot.
“It was such a horrific day, but the thing I would like people to remember about Kenny is that he was just a kind person who worked hard, did a great job, loved his family and friends and loved his country. The mere fact that all these people have done so much to keep his name alive speaks volumes. Not many people do that for somebody,” she said.
Since 9/11, Wrenshall has lost much. In addition to her brother, her husband, Bill, passed away, as did her mother, Eileen. She’s been retired from her jobs as an educator at North Allegheny High School as well as a claims processor for an insurance company. However, she still finds an outlet, not surprisingly in aquatics. She teaches swimming lessons and helps coach the Oxford Athletic Club’s swim team.
“I am very grateful for the opportunity I have to meet people, adults as well as children, and to interact with them. I feel that I am very fortunate.”
Wrenshall adds that she is lucky to live in the United States and to have had a hero for a brother.
“I love my country. I feel it’s the greatest country in the whole world, but I feel for our grandchildren because it’s not the easiest world to grow up in, but I am pretty impressed with the young people who are still willing to be an ambassador for and fight for this nation.
“When I think of Kenny and think that he was too young to have died,” she continued, “I think about what my mother said. Perhaps she was just being stoic about (9/11), but she said, ‘I had him for 46 years. I’m happy I had him for that long.’ She was right.”