Nathaniel Webb

A Port Authority police officer for twenty-eight years, assigned to the Holland Tunnel. He was one of three officers from that command killed that morning, and was last seen at roll call.

There was an apple tree in his grandfather's garden and the children were forbidden to touch it. He and his cousins picked the apples anyway, still green. When the old man found them gone he demanded to know who had disobeyed him, and they all lied - except that when he was cornered Nathaniel would go teary-eyed and tell the truth. His cousin Delores remembered it: then we all got punished, but he never did.

From that almost biblical beginning he stayed on the side of authority for the rest of his life. She said he was always trying to keep everyone else on the straight and narrow.

His friends and colleagues called him righteous and generous. He looked after his housebound mother, calling in several times a week to sit with her. When a few of them went out for a drink or a meal after a shift he would quietly pick up the bill.

An officer who worked with him at the Holland Tunnel was once stranded in Brooklyn with a flat tyre. He drove over from Jersey City to sit with her until the tow truck came. She said: and the thing was, I didn't even have to ask.

He held the Meritorious Active Duty Award and a Police Group Citation.

At the dedication of the Tribute in Light on the eleventh of March 2002, his daughter Valerie was chosen to switch on the two banks of forty-four searchlights.

Police Officer Nathaniel Webb was killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks while attempting to rescue the victims trapped in the World Trade Center.

Officer Webb had served with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department for over 35 years.

His daughters Camille and Valerie, and his mother.