He left home that morning for a single day's business in San Francisco. When his call to his wife failed he reached an operator, who says he gave her a calm account of what was happening aboard and messages for his wife, who was expecting their third child. He asked the operator to say the Lord's Prayer with him. At the end of the call she heard him say to the others: are you guys ready? Okay. Let's roll.

Killed aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which came down in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on the morning of 11 September 2001. The aircraft had left Newark forty-two minutes late, which is the only reason those aboard learned by telephone what had already happened in New York before theirs was taken. They had about thirty minutes. They voted, and they went forward at the cockpit door. The aircraft never reached what it was aimed at.