When It Mattered Most

September 1, 2026

The Order’s response to 9/11 included swift financial support for first-responder families and scholarships for children of brother Knights

By Brian Caulfield

September 1, 2026

Robert Wallen (left) and his two sons, Robert Jr. and Kevin, ride the Staten Island Ferry past Lower Manhattan with One World Trade Center visible in the distance. (Photo by Jeffrey Bruno)

When terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, the Knights of Columbus responded with immediate assistance for those directly affected. The day after the attacks, the Order established the $1 million Heroes Fund, providing $3,000 to the families of full-time law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel who died in the rescue and recovery efforts. The first check was delivered Sept. 13, and a total of 419 families received benefits from the fund to help cover immediate expenses as they grieved.

In addition, through the longstanding Francis P. Matthews and John E. Swift Educational Trust Scholarships, named for past supreme knights, the Order provided funds for Catholic college tuition to children of Knights of Columbus first responders who were killed in the performance of their duties or declared permanently disabled as a result of their rescue and recovery efforts. More than 30 children affected by 9/11 have received such scholarships over the years, including some who were infants at the time of the attacks.

Among the nearly 3,000 people killed on 9/11 were 46 members of the Knights of Columbus, including 12 firefighters and six law enforcement officers.

The following stories offer a glimpse of how the Order came to the aid of the families of first responders when it was needed most.

A HEROIC BROTHERHOOD

Although initial news reports on Sept. 11 claimed that a small plane had flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center in an apparent accident, New York firefighter Ken Haskell said to himself, “We’re under attack!”

He had been a New York City police officer responding to the scene in 1993 when terrorists set off a bomb in the underground garage of the north tower.

“I knew, sooner or later, they would be back to finish the job,” he recalled recently. “So even before the second plane hit, I knew this was going to be a terrible day.”

Although he was beginning his day off at his Long Island home that Tuesday morning, he said goodbye to his wife and young child and drove to Ladder Company 159 in the Flatlands neighborhood of Brooklyn. He and other off-duty firefighters from his company loaded into a bus, stopped at nearby firehouses to pick up other first responders and headed to what would become known as ground zero. The south tower had already fallen, and as they crossed the Manhattan Bridge, they saw the north tower collapse.

“I turned to one of the guys and said, ‘We’re all going to know somebody who just died there.’”

Haskell’s remark carried profound personal weight. His two brothers, Tommy and Timmy, were also firefighters, and he didn’t know if either had reached ground zero before him. Working for hours on rescue and recovery efforts at the site, he found firefighters who told him that Tommy was in the south tower and Timmy in the north tower when each collapsed.

“I knew it was not good,” he recalled. He drove to his mother’s house to break the news. “Officially, everyone in the buildings was listed as missing. I knew there was little hope of them being alive, but I didn’t say so at the time.”

Timothy Haskell’s remains were found a few days later, and his funeral Mass was celebrated with grief and reverence. The remains of Thomas Haskell, an FDNY captain, were never identified.

Thomas’ wife, Barbara, and their three daughters received a Heroes Fund check during a visit from a Knights of Columbus insurance agent. Timothy was not married, and the Heroes Fund check went to his mother.

“It’s a wonderful thing that the Knights did,” said Ken, a member of Memorare Council 3476 in Seaford for the past 30 years. “It’s not so much the money, it’s the thought that goes into it. The firefighters have such a strong bond of fellowship, just like the Knights do. That’s why I’m a member.”

Ken Haskell stands at the south pool of the 9/11 Memorial beside the engraved names of his two brothers, Thomas and Timothy, both FDNY firefighters who died Sept. 11, 2001. (Photo by Radhika Chalasani)

Through the Seaford 9/11 Memorial Committee, Ken and his sister Dawn Haskell-Carbone have kept alive the memories of their heroic brothers and three others from their hometown who were killed that day. The committee sponsors educational events and provides scholarships to qualifying students at the local public high school.

“Everything we do is for the memory of our brothers and the other Seaford High School alumni who died,” said Dawn. “We bring the whole senior class [each year] to the 9/11 Memorial at ground zero so they will learn about what happened that day and how so many sacrificed so much.”

Ken, 57, retired in 2016 after 26 years with the fire department. Looking back on 9/11, he said, “Twenty-five years may seem like a long time, but for those who went through it, the time doesn’t matter. One year, five years, 25 years — you still feel it just the same. I miss my brothers every day.”

AGENTS OF MERCY

Shock. Sadness. Compassion. These were some of the emotions that flooded the minds of Knights of Columbus insurance agents as they delivered Heroes Fund checks to families in the wake of 9/11. Established the day after the terror attacks, the fund provided $3,000 to the families of first responders killed in the performance of their duties, regardless of their faith or membership in the Knights of Columbus.

Though the families welcomed the assistance, and the agents were proud to represent the Order in providing it, delivering the checks was an excruciating task they wished had never been necessary.

“I remember vividly that day, which devastated our country and the world,” said Robert Roy, then a field agent who covered an area in Rockland County where many New York police officers and firefighters lived. Among the checks he delivered was one to Dorothy Richard, whose husband, Vernon, a firefighter and Baptist, died at the World Trade Center. A lieutenant and 24-year veteran of the FDNY, Richard was promoted posthumously to captain in a ceremony a few days after the attacks.

“She had spoken to her husband by phone just an hour before everything happened, and he said he was coming home,” Roy recalled the widow telling him. “She was numb with shock, but very appreciative of the funds. This was an initial something to get them through the next few weeks with expenses, something to help before any other benefits. It was given without filling out a lot of paperwork or going through red tape.”

Joseph Pollaci was a general agent in New Jersey who delivered a check to Cindy Rodriguez, widow of Richard, a police officer and member of San Salvador Council 299 in Perth Amboy who died at the World Trade Center after bringing several people to safety.

“I was watching the horror of 9/11 on the TV, and saw the second plane hit,” recalled Pollaci, now retired and living with his wife in Florida. “It was very scary and very personal for those who were close to the situation.”

His father had been a general agent before him, so Pollaci considered it a special honor to represent the Order by delivering the Heroes Fund check.

“It was not something you took lightly. You knew you were entering people’s homes at perhaps the saddest time of their lives,” he said. “But we were proud of the fact that we as Knights had done something like that, to give some form of help in a time of great need.”

A FATHER AND HIS SONS

When Robert Wallen joined his local Knights of Columbus council in 1990, he did not give much thought to the family benefits of the Order. He was 25, single, working for a Wall Street data company and making few long-term plans. But after marrying his wife, Theresa, in 1994 and becoming a New York City firefighter, with their first child on the way, he took out insurance policies with the Knights and remembered hearing about the Matthews and Swift Scholarship.

“I got out the flier with all the benefits that I had stuffed in a desk drawer,” recalled Wallen, who is a 36-year member of Henry Stolzenthaler Council 1675 on Staten Island. “I thought, ‘I’m a fireman with a family now, so maybe I should pay more attention to this.’”

Three FDNY firefighters raise the U.S. flag in the wreckage at ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001. — Three FDNY firefighters raise the U.S. flag in the wreckage at ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001: from left, George Johnson, a member of Msgr. William F. Burke Council 2672 in Rockaway Beach, N.Y., Billy Eisengrein and Dan McWilliams. (Photo by Lori Grinker)

In the aftermath of 9/11, Wallen and his family, together with many other families of first-responder Knights, would become gratefully aware of the full benefits of membership. He was detailed at the time to a firehouse near his Staten Island home and made it to the World Trade Center with dozens of other first responders from the borough after both towers had collapsed. He worked on search and rescue until after midnight and returned to the site regularly over the next few days.

Like many others laboring at ground zero in those dark days, he developed a serious illness from the toxic conditions. Declared permanently disabled with a blood cancer, he retired from the FDNY as a lieutenant in 2006. A stem cell transplant from a matching donor in Germany eventually saved his life by producing healthy bone marrow. Wallen has met the donor in person and finds significance in the fact that his first name is Florian, the patron saint of firefighters.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that somehow God was at work,” he affirmed.

His younger son, Kevin, was 20 months old on 9/11 and took advantage of the scholarship when the time came for college, graduating from St. John’s University in Queens in 2024. Now 26, he is an apprentice electrician working in Manhattan.

“I can’t say enough about the Knights and the opportunity I received through the scholarship,” said Kevin. “I am in a much better financial situation than a lot of others my age because of it.”

Wallen’s older son, also named Robert, passed up the scholarship to attend SUNY Maritime College and works part-time as a pilot for the New York City Ferry. Inspired by his father’s example, he is now a New York firefighter himself.

“I was in first grade when 9/11 happened,” said Robert, 31. “My father was definitely a driving factor in my decision” to become a firefighter.

Both sons are Knights in the same council as their dad.

“I saw what the Knights were all about,” said Kevin, who joined soon after he turned 18, “and I wanted to be a part of it.”

*****

BRIAN CAULFIELD is a vice postulator of the cause for canonization of Blessed Michael McGivney and past grand knight of Holy Family Council 8882 in New Haven, Conn.

Colorado Gov. Henry A. Buchtel signs a bill making Columbus Day a state holiday April 1, 1907.

When It Mattered Most

A HEROIC BROTHERHOOD

AGENTS OF MERCY

A FATHER AND HIS SONS

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