In Loving Memory of
Robert Sutcliffe, Jr
October 16, 1961-September 11, 2001
"A beautiful life that came to an end, he died as he lived,
everyone's friend. In our hearts a memory will always be kept, of one we
loved and will never forget."
Thanks to everyone who have offered their prayers for my family. I haven't had the
words to communicate how special my cousin Bobby was and how deeply the loss is felt
throughout the family. Everything sounded either too private or too impersonal. Instead, I've
included an article the Charlotte Observer published on him.
Susan, webmaster of edward-norton.org
2 Seats to cherish for father, son
By SCOTT FOWLER
Charlotte Observer,September 30, 2001
Dad of Packer fan who died in NYC tragedy donates Panther tickets
If you would like to donate your unused Panther tickets and also
receive a tax deduction, the Panthers and community relations director
B.J. Waymer run an ongoing program that matches unused tickets with
kids who would appreciate them.
They are a special pair of tickets.
They will admit two fans into today's Carolina Panthers home opener
against Green Bay in Ericsson Stadium. They cost $39 apiece and are in
the upper deck, above the west end zone. Section 504. Row 20. Seats
6-7.
They aren't great seats. But they are a symbol of something that
reaches far higher than Section 504.
The tickets originally belonged to Robert Sutcliffe and his grown
son, Robert Jr. - two Green Bay Packers fans from New York. They had
developed a father-son tradition of flying to a Green Bay game
somewhere in America once per NFL season.
Today is the game they chose.
But everything changed on Sept.11, the day Robert Sutcliffe Jr.
attended a breakfast meeting on the 106th floor of the World Trade
Center's north tower.
Robert Sutcliffe Jr. bought the tickets May 12. A 39-year-old
stockbroker, Sutcliffe had a wife and a 4-year-old daughter named Kara. His friends called him "Sut" or "Bobby."
Bobby Sutcliffe and his 72-year-old dad both lived on Long Island,
about 45 minutes from Manhattan. The Sutcliffes are a close family.
Bobby, an only child, had a long-standing love for the Packers that
sprang from his father.
"Those guys were father and son," says Margaret, Bobby's wife, "but
mostly they were best friends."
Robert Sr. was such a Packers fan that the one time he went to
Green Bay on business, he followed legendary Packers receiver Don
Hutson into the men's room at a local restaurant just to say hello.
Robert Sr. owns a single share of Packers stock and had always planned
to will it to his son.
In 1998, after decades of watching Packers games on TV together,
Bobby Sutcliffe took his father to Lambeau Field to watch Green Bay
beat Tampa Bay. They went to Green Bay again in 1999, then to Miami to
see the Packers play the Dolphins in 2000 before planning the Charlotte
trip for this year.
"Bobby always paid for the whole thing," Robert Sr. says proudly.
Bobby Sutcliffe bought the tickets to today's Panthers-Packers game
shortly after they went on sale. When they arrived in the mail, he
stowed them in a fireproof box in his house in Huntington, N.Y.
The fireproof box contained a file labeled "Green Bay Packers." In
that file, Sutcliffe also placed a layout of Ericsson Stadium with the
"504" section circled in blue ink, along with a confirmation number
for Charlotte's uptown Marriott hotel.
For five months, the tickets stayed in that box. Bobby and Margaret
Sutcliffe got joyous news during that time - Margaret was pregnant
with twins.
At 6 feet tall and 220 pounds, Bobby Sutcliffe was a big man with a
great appetite for life. He had advanced from clerk to floor broker
after 18 years in the firm of Harvey, Young, Yurman Inc. He spent each
day buying and selling millions of shares on the floor of the New York
Stock Exchange. He often gathered up the leftover deli sandwiches
after a day on the stock exchange and handed them out to homeless men
while he walked to catch the train back to Long Island.
Sutcliffe's firm didn't have offices in the World Trade Center, but
its floor brokers met there most Tuesday mornings. They would eat
breakfast and talk strategy at Windows on the World - the WTC's
well-known restaurant with the breathtaking view of New York.
On Tuesday, Sept.11, Sutcliffe and five other employees at his firm
had an 8a.m. meeting scheduled at the restaurant. Sutcliffe left his
house at 6:30a.m. to make sure he was on time.
Two jets, hijacked by terrorists, crashed into the World Trade
Center's twin towers that morning. One member of Sutcliffe's firm
called the brokerage office at 9:10a.m., after both planes had hit, to
say everyone was trying to evacuate.
The group was never heard from again.
At her home, Margaret Sutcliffe watched the second plane crash live
on television. Like most of America, she felt dazed. She watched the
TV coverage for nearly 30minutes before she realized what day of the
week it was.
"And then I knew," she says. "I said, 'Oh my God. It's Tuesday.
Bobby's there.'"
Within minutes, between frantic phone calls, Margaret had seen the
World Trade Center's twin towers crumple to the ground.
After that, the Sutcliffe family did the same sorts of things that
the families of the 6,000 or so other missing people did.
They hugged. They cried. They made missing-person leaflets to
distribute. Part of Sutcliffe's read: "World's greatest dad to Kara.
Loving son to Bob & Pat Sutcliffe. Your family & friends love you &
miss you. God Bless."
Eventually, the family faced reality.
Bobby Sutcliffe was dead. Two separate memorial services were held
in his honor Wednesday in New York.
Four-year-old Kara has been comforting her mother, telling her that
Daddy is in heaven and that they will see him every time they go to
church.
Margaret had a doctor's appointment Sept.13, two days after the
terrorist strikes. That's when she found out the twins were going to
be boys. Bobby had guessed for months they would both be girls. "He
would laugh and say, 'I live in a girls' house already. Nothing's
going to change,'" Margaret recalls.
The twins are due in February. Margaret isn't sure, but she's
thinking that both will carry the middle name Robert. She probably
will name one Brett for Packers quarterback Brett Favre, who will
start against the Panthers today.
When Robert Sr. heard the horrible news of Sept.11, he mourned his
son and best friend. And, eventually, he remembered the tickets to
today's game.
"Bobby wouldn't have wanted those tickets to go to waste," Robert
Sr. says.
So the father asked Margaret if it was OK to make someone else
happy with the tickets. She liked the idea.
That's how Robert Sutcliffe Sr. came to call this newspaper. He
didn't want to come to Charlotte without his son, but he didn't want
the Sutcliffe seats to go empty. He wanted to find the tickets a good
home.
His message was relayed to me. We talked. He mailed the tickets.
With the help of several compassionate people, I found the Arnette
family.
The Sutcliffes' pair of tickets will be used today by another
father and son who care deeply about football, and about each other.
The son is a 12-year-old boy named Jamie Arnette. Jamie is a
seventh-grader who loves the Panthers, particularly tight end Wesley
Walls. The father is Ron Arnette, a local auto mechanic for 29 years.
They live in Harrisburg.
Jamie has a brain tumor. Everyone hopes and prays it has been
treated successfully, although no one knows. The tumor has affected
Jamie's growth and his vision, but it hasn't stopped him from playing
nose guard on his Pop Warner football team. Ron Arnette goes to every
practice and every game.
After years of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Jamie's tumor
is still lodged almost directly behind his nose, wedged beside his
optic nerve. It appears dormant. The radiation treatments may have
damaged Jamie's pituitary gland, which means it's possible he won't
grow any taller than his current 4-foot-10 height.
But Jamie is a gregarious kid who still loves sports. One of his
Pop Warner coaches, former Panther defensive end Gerald Williams, says
Jamie has "an amazing heart."
Jamie can't wait for today, to climb the steps to the 20th row of
Section 504. He will think about the game, and also about the people
who had planned to be in those seats.
Robert Sutcliffe will see the game, too, on TV with some of his
friends in Long Island. "I'll think about Bobby a lot," Sutcliffe says.
"We watched every game together."
Jamie plans to write the Sutcliffes a note.
He wants to say thank you for the tickets. He wants to say that he
knows Bobby Sutcliffe is in a better place. He wants to say that he's
going to keep in touch with the family.
"I want to tell Mr. Sutcliffe," Jamie says, "that I'm sorry about
his son."
Painting above is "Avenue in the Rain" (1917) by Childe Hassam
(more info)