Table of Biography
Todd Morgan Beamer was a passenger on board United Airlines Flight 93 when it was hijacked and crashed in 2001. Todd Beamer was one of the travelers who made an effort to retake control of the plane from the hijackers.
Early Life and Childhood
Todd Beamer was born on November 24, 1968, in Flint, Michigan. He was born to his father David Beamer and his mother Peggy Jackson Beamer. His father is an IBM sales representative and his mother is a muralist.
Likewise, he has two siblings sisters named Melissa and Michele. The family moved to Wheaton, Illinois where David worked at Amdahl, a business that makes computer technology, before going to Poughkeepsie, New York. Likewise, he held American nationality and was born under the sun sign Sagittarius.
Education and Early Career
Beamer played baseball, basketball, and soccer while he was a student at Wheaton Christian Grammar School. He excelled in the same sports while attending Wheaton Academy, a Christian high school, from 1983 to 1985.
In his junior year, he was selected as the class vice president. Beamer spent his final year at Los Gatos High School, which is located southwest of San Jose, California after David was allowed to advance to vice president of Amdahl’s California headquarters.
Beamer majored in physical therapy while playing baseball at California State University, Fresno, to play professionally. However, the injuries he suffered in a vehicle accident put an end to these dreams.
He transferred to Wheaton College, a Christian liberal arts college, after going back to his native Illinois. He first majored in medicine at Wheaton College before moving to business. In addition to his basketball captaincy as a senior, he continued to play baseball. His graduation was in 1991.
Death
Todd Beamer took his last breath on September 11, 2001, in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania, United States. The main reason for his death was the plane hijacked and crashed.
Flight 93
Beamer had to travel for work up to four times a month, sometimes for a week. He had a high sales performance in 2001, earning a five-day trip to Italy for himself and his wife. On Monday, September 10, at 5:00 p.m. EDT, they went back home. Beamer had the option of leaving that evening for a Tuesday business conference in California, but he chose to stay with his wife who was expecting their third child in January.
The following day, he departed from his house at 6:15 a.m. to catch an early flight from Newark to San Francisco and meet with representatives of the Sony Corporation at 1:00 p.m. He then intended to fly back that evening on a red-eye flight.
Caption: Todd Beamer, hero of Flight 93
Source: All That’s Interesting
United Flight 93 was supposed to take off at 8:00 a.m., however, due to runway traffic delays, the Boeing 757 did not take off until 42 minutes later. American Airlines Flight 11 collided with the North Tower of the World Trade Center four minutes later.
United 93 was traveling west over New Jersey and into Pennsylvania at 9:03 a.m., 17 minutes before United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower. Flight 93’s pilot called Cleveland controllers at 9:25 a.m. to ask about an alert that had flashed on his aircraft computer screen warning him to “beware of cockpit intrusion.” At that time, the plane was flying over eastern Ohio.
More…
Screams may be heard over the open aircraft microphone three minutes later by Cleveland controllers. A short while later, the hijackers, who were commanded by the Lebanese Ziad Samir Jarrah, took control of the aircraft, deactivated the autopilot, and instructed passengers to remain seated. On board, we have a bomb. Beamer and the rest of the passengers were pulled into the plane’s tail. The aircraft reversed its trajectory and headed toward Washington, D.C., in less than six minutes.
Many of the passengers dialed their loved ones and told them about the two planes that had struck the World Trade Center in New York City and the third that had struck the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. Beamer attempted to use a phone on the back of an airplane seat to contact a credit card but was connected to a customer service agent who then connected him to Lisa Jefferson, the GTE airphone supervisor.
The crew and passengers then decided to take action. Cell phone conversation recordings claim that Beamer, Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, and Jeremy Glick came up with a strategy to retake the plane from the hijackers. They eventually stormed the cockpit and took control of the aircraft.
Beamer informed Jefferson that the team intended to “jump on” the hijackers and bring the aircraft down before they could carry out their plan. Others joined in as Beamer and Jefferson recited the Lord’s Prayer and the 23rd Psalm. Jefferson then overheard a hushed conversation, followed by Beamer asking, “Are you ready? Okay. Let’s get going. These were Beamer’s final remarks, which Lisa Jefferson overheard.
More…
The voice data recorder of the aircraft was found to have recordings of English-language screams and shouting as well as banging and crashing noises against the cockpit door, according to the 9/11 Commission Report. One of the passengers shouts, “Let’s get them!” The hijacker yells “Allahu akbar.” The passengers continued to harass Jarrah despite her repeated attempts to knock them off their feet, and at 10:02:17, a male passenger exclaimed, “Turn it up!” Pull it down! a hijacker said a split second later.
At a speed of 563 mph (906 km/h), the plane fell upside down into a barren field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone inside. The White House or the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., were the plane’s presumed targets, both of which were 20 minutes away by air. Vice President Dick Cheney said that President George W. Bush had ordered the plane to be shot down if it had continued to Washington.
Legacy
Beamer was survived by his wife Lisa, and their children Morgan and David, who were three and one at the time of his passing. President Bush hailed the bravery of United 93’s passengers in a speech to a joint session of Congress and the American people on September 20, 2001, and specifically mentioned Lisa Beamer, referring to him as “an exceptional man.”
Bush would quote Beamer’s last-heard comments in a speech on November 8 from the World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. My fellow Americans, let’s roll!” He would use them once more in the State of the Union speech in 2002: “For too long our society has demanded, ‘If it feels good, do it.’ ‘Let’s roll,’ is the new ethic and ideology that America is now adopting.
Morgan Kay, Beamer’s daughter, was conceived on January 9, 2002, which was four months after Beamer’s passing. Morgan received letters following her birth from several people, including the President and First Lady Laura Bush. A nonprofit organization was established in October 2001 to provide therapy to 9/11 victims’ and survivors’ traumatized kids. Doug Macmillan, Beamer’s closest friend, left his job to take on the role of Foundation administrator. Let’s Roll! was a book co-written by Lisa Beamer and Ken Abraham in 2002. Extraordinary Courage from Regular People.
More…
Beamer and the other passengers on Flight 93 received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award tragically in 2002. On May 4, 2002, Beamer’s post office in Cranbury, New Jersey was dedicated as a result of an Act of Congress written by Congressman Rush D. Holt, Jr. President George W. Bush ratified the legislation.
The Todd M. Beamer Center, which houses Anderson Commons, Coray Alumni Gym, and the Student Center on the lower floor, was inaugurated in 2003 as a way for Wheaton College to pay tribute to alumni Beamer. Todd Beamer High School began operations in Federal Way, Washington, that same year. Todd Beamer Park was dedicated in the Californian city of Fresno in February 2010.
Beamer’s name, along with the names of his 32 fellow passengers and seven crew members, are written on individual panels on the white marble Wall of Names, which was finished in 2011. The memorial is part of the Flight 93 National Memorial, which is situated at the crash site in Stonycreek Township. It also contains a concrete and glass visitor center.
More…
Todd Beamer and the other Flight 93 passengers and crew are remembered at the National 9/11 Memorial on Panel S-68 in the South Pool. The memorial museum has his two-tone Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust timepiece and an Oracle business card with his name on it that were both discovered damaged at the crash scene.
On September 10, 2013, Wheaton Academy dedicated a memorial honoring Beamer on the school’s property next to one commemorating a former pupil who died in Afghanistan.
Fellow DePaul University graduate Nicholas Hahn, III established the Todd M. Beamer Memorial Scholarship in Beamer’s honor to inform and motivate DePaul students about Beamer’s courageous example on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
In Popular Culture
In the movies United 93 and Flight 93, Brennan Elliott and David Alan Basche respectively portrayed Beamer. The Amazing Spider-Man volume 2#36 has two panels with Beamer, who hangs up the phone with Lisa Jefferson before assaulting the cockpit. The passengers of Flight 93 are described by Spider-Man as “Ordinary individuals. everyday woman. refusing to submit.”
In the wake of the attacks, Neil Young wrote “Let’s Roll,” a song that pays tribute to Beamer from his point of view.
Personal Life
Todd Beamer was a happily married man. He had tied the knot with Lisa Brosious on May 14, 1994, in Peekskill, New York. The couple met for the first time at Wheaton College during a senior seminar class. They had their first date on November 2, 1991. They had been planning to celebrate their 10th anniversary at the time of his death. The couple was the parents of three children named Morgan Kay Beamer and Drew Beamer. The details about his younger kid are not available.
Caption: Todd Beamer’s wife and kids
Source: Wall Street Journal
For six years, Todd Beamer and Lisa served in the youth ministry and Sunday school at Princeton Alliance Church. Beamer participated in the church softball team as well. He was a devoted supporter of the Chicago Bears, Chicago Bulls, and Chicago Cubs. The Beamers and their two kids moved to Cranbury, New Jersey, in the year 2000.
Todd Beamer – Net Worth 2023
Todd Beamer had earned a decent amount of money throughout his career as a Cadre. He had a net worth of $5 million at the time of his death. But there are no details about his salary and other asset values.
Social Media
Reflecting on his social media presence, Todd Beamer wasn’t active on any social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and so on. He was a private type of person and liked to keep his life away from the limelight.
Todd Beamer – Body Measurements
Talking about his body stats, there are no details about his height, weight, dress size, shoe size, and so on. But looking at his pictures we can assume that he had a pair of brown eyes with black hair.