On The 20th Anniversary Of 9/11, Ed Zier Has A Story To Tell

FAIR LAWN, NJ — Ed Zier was incredibly lucky on Sept. 11, 2001. Zier worked on the 78th floor of Two World Trade Center, or the south tower.

He boarded a train at Radburn like he did every day, but his usual journey through Hoboken into Lower Manhattan was halted before he crossed the Hudson River.

It was from New Jersey where Zier watched his offices burn, and he was left to believe that everyone he worked with was gone.

What he came to learn later — after he visited his children at school in Bergen County to assure them he was alright — is that his company, Baseline, lost four members of the team that day — Jill Campbell, Ruth Lapin, Robert "Bob" Levine and Steve Weinberg.

Twelve others made the "great descent" from their offices on the 77th and 78th floors.

Baseline was founded by Robert Patterson in a Madison, New Jersey, basement in the 1980s. It had grown quickly in the years since, with the office space to prove it.

But after 9/11, the business needed to be rebuilt in a way, both literally and figuratively.

In the years since, Zier helped rebuild that company, overcame a health scare, moved to Florida and, most recently, has written a book about the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and what followed.

That book, "Undaunted", is out this Saturday, and published by Koehler Books. Zier spent the last four years interviewing colleagues and their families, as well as conducting research and writing the book.

Despite the title, the book wasn't certain to be published, let alone be finished.

Zier had written some thoughts down, but it took a heart attack in 2015, and a visit to the 9/11 Memorial, to really set the work in motion.

Confronting his own mortality, Zier was motivated to tell the story "before my own time runs out," he said. He began reaching out to former colleagues, who he discovered had also recorded their thoughts and experiences from the day.

Zier separates the periods of the research and writing process into a one-year and three-year bucket.

In the first year, he was hoping to create something for friends and colleagues that would give them something physical to hand down through the generations, getting the experiences of the people who worked at Baseline, and the company itself, on record.

The last three years created what is coming out Saturday; a micro-level view of 9/11 that focuses almost entirely on a small group of people who coped with immense loss and trauma, all while trying to rebuild their financial technology business in the pre-2008 American economy.

"Undaunted" doesn't try to uncover new details about the events in an effort to add to the historical record, but Zier said these first-person details do tell the story of the company and his colleagues.

But writing a business story about an event like 9/11 means striking a delicate balance.

When Zier pitched this story to Patch, he summarized his thoughts in the days after the attacks like this: "At the end of the day, I had lost four colleagues and had to determine how we could save the 211 remaining jobs in peril."

It's fair to read that sentence and think "211 jobs, who cares about your company?"

Zier understands that line of questioning, because he asked himself the same one for years.

"How would families that were affected by 9/11 feel about me telling a business story in and amongst a tragedy?" he would think.

But the answer, according to Zier, is that the families of those four employees, and their friends and fellow co-workers, do care.

To himself and his colleagues, the business side seems to fit together, but he understands from the outside it may seem incompatible.

What's most important, though, is that he can share their story through this work, and do some healing in the process, both for himself, and for those who lost a loved one.

And the book has already gained praise from some close to the events of 9/11.

"While reading Undaunted, I felt as though I was back on that horrible day," said Thomas Von Essen, former FDNY Commissioner and author. "Ed Zier does a remarkable job of personalizing an event that shook the world. A small group of innocent, decent, hardworking Americans now have their story told along with so many others."

The most meaningful praise of all came from the families of his colleagues who died in the attacks that day, Zier said.

He was initially scared to speak with them, fearing that he could bring up emotional trauma for no reason.

“I didn’t want to waste their time if this book didn’t become a reality,” he said.

But with the book now days away from release, and with a little distance between the events of 9/11, Zier said it was actually part of an important process.

“What I was doing was actually helping their continual healing process,” he said. “We all have a healing process, but I can’t imagine being in their shoes.”

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