is this larger than life figure, but he still has an impact in my life every day.”
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acrosse brought Peter Ortale, Trinity ’87, to Duke from Philadelphia. Small for a midfielder, Peter made up for his size with extra effort, and at Duke he was named a threetime team MVP, a co-captain his senior year and All-ACC. He was an explosive player who led the team in ground balls, played “with reckless abandon” and “wanted to win more than anybody else,” teammates remembered. Some years later, a lacrosse scholarship was founded in his name. Peter valued the pursuit of knowledge and intellectual debates and he nurtured a particular interest in Russian literature. To him, the ultimate luxury vacation was reading “War and Peace” uninterrupted on a beach. “He liked Tolstoy and some of the philosophers and things like that, that was kind of Pete,” recalled friend and former teammate, Dr. Scott Schraff, Trinity ’87. “He was the blue-collar kid who cut his own path, and I think he really identified with people and things that were individualistic, and did things the way he thought they should be done.... He wasn’t going to let people tell him what to do.” When he was looking for a job, his sister, Cathy Grimes, remembers coaching Peter for banking interviews after he returned from time abroad. “It was so funny what he thought would be reasonable answers,” she recalled. Yet Peter did land a job in New York’s financial industry and in May 2000, he married Mary Duff. Sixteen months later, at 37, Peter went to work in the Euro Broker offices on the 84th floor of the World Trade Center’s south tower. He didn’t leave, but with his strong morals and loyalty to his friends, Peter’s teammates are convinced he got held up trying to help others make it out, too. This September, Peter’s family and friends gathered at a bar he frequented, The Bailey Pub & Brasserie, where a portrait of Peter hangs. The celebration aimed to raise money for the scholarships in Peter’s memory at Duke and at his high school, The William Penn Charter School. It was a chance to remember Peter and celebrate the things that mattered most to him, his sister said. “He was a person who was an explorer, a truth seeker, adventurous, extremely generous,” Cathy said. “I think his attitude was: What are you saving for? What do you care? Let’s just go. Let’s just do. If you didn’t have the means and he did— you’re in. If neither of us have the means, we’re going to improvise, you’re never going to let an experience be fleeting. Just go and do.”
parents and sister. That house was usually full of friends—boys sleeping over before the next morning’s practice or sparring in knee-hockey in the playroom. Todd would remain close with those childhood friends, who, even after Todd went to boarding school in Connecticut, came back to the Pitman’s every summer. Gary Gerst, who was introduced to Todd as a toddler, now tells his children stories about their “Uncle Todd in the sky.” Two years after graduating from Duke and joining Cantor Fitzgerald, Todd moved to Tokyo to lead its currency and trading division in Asia. After moving to New York’s East Village in 2000, Todd bought the property next to his father’s lake house, drew designs and contacted an architect about building a home there to have everything in place for the time he could stop working in the city. He figured he needed a little more than 10 more years. The week of September 3, 2001, Todd returned to the city after celebrating his 30th birthday in his hometown of Skaneateles, New York,
it? What can you do for good? As much as we have this memorial for 9/11 and how horrific it was, there’s a 9/11 every day but it’s just a small one.”
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or A. Todd Rancke, Trinity ’81, Duke was a family place. Two of his three older sisters, Pam Schroeder, School of Nursing ’75, and Cynthia Bienemann, Nursing ’78, were alumni and later, two nephews played baseball and lacrosse there. Duke is also where Todd met his wife, Debbie Basham, whose parents lived in Durham. The two were married in the Duke Chapel before moving back to Todd’s hometown of Summit, N.J., where his parents and siblings still live. In his own time at Duke, Todd joined Phi Delta Theta fraternity. A clean-cut, active guy, Todd was never alone on campus and hardly said no to any invitation to go anywhere. After graduation, Todd worked at Bear Stearns and moved to Sandler O’Neill in the 1990s. There, Todd was a role model. Fred Price, managing principal at Sandler O’Neill, who initially tried to recruit Todd from Bear Stearns when the firm opened but was turned down until a few years later, remembered young employees would seek advice from Todd. His friendliness and approachability drew the admiration of his co-workers and clients who liked him so much they would vacation with the Ranckes. Although Todd worked hard at the office, he was a dedicated family man at home. Every Sunday after church, the family would go to lunch, Debbie remembered, then go home and get on their bikes and ride in formation: in the front, the three children— —Gary Gerst Todd Christina, Brittany and Todd—in the middle and herself in the back. where Gary’s family had thrown him a surprise On “Take Your Daughter to Work Day,” Todd party. That week, he called an architect about brought his eldest, Christina, to visit his office building his cabin on the lake, and he went back on the 104th floor. The fast elevator hurt her upstate for the weekend to help his dad at his own ears, but she could play on his computer, meet lake-front property. Dressed in a button-down the other kids and see what he did all day. Now shirt and jacket that had been his style since the a junior at Southern Methodist University, going ninth grade, he watched Gary coach a varsity soc- to work with Todd remains one of Christina’s facer team to a shootout victory and then the two vorite memories. went downtown for drinks. Three days later, at “I was with him for 11 years, but I still rememwork in Cantor Fitzgerald’s offices in the north ber I admired him for his ability to maintain such tower, Todd died. good relationships and friendships,” Christina Todd’s father, Eric Pitman, built the lake house said. “He really was just one of those people who his son did not have time to see completed and got along with everybody.” stood in as best man at Gary’s wedding in 2002. One Saturday in early September, Todd and Still, 10 years later, Todd has continued to give his family went to his niece’s engagement party in through his family and friends. They created the Connecticut. On the way home, Todd and Cynangel fund Todd’s Fund to provide financial assis- thia’s husband, in separate cars, raced to see who tance for families whose children’s lives have been would get there faster, laughing the whole ride. affected by tragedy, which Gary hopes his oldest Arriving in Summit that night, Cynthia recalls, son, Nathan Todd Gerst, might someday help run. was the last time she saw her brother. Three days It has raised more than $750,000 in Todd’s name. later, Todd, 42, went missing in the south tower And at Todd’s high school, The Hotchkiss School, of the World Trade Center after placing a call to a fund still stands in Todd’s mother’s name that he his wife. When the towers fell, the haze was viscreated for students who could not afford to travel ible from New Jersey. Todd’s family went into the home for the holidays—a donation he kept secret city for days, searching hospitals for him with the from even his family. It now bears his name, too. help of a “60 Minutes” crew led by Todd’s neigh“I can’t ever say now that things happen for bor. When Todd’s memorial service took place, a reason because you can’t ever tell me that there a crowd turned out to remember the man they was a reason that happened,” Gary said. “There’s called, “Mr. Mayor.” Since then, Debbie has rethings that happen, but what you have to realize married and moved with the children to Florida. is in a horrible situation, what can you learn from Christina is in Dallas, Brittany in college in Flori-
“There’s things that happen, but what you have to realize is in a horrible situation, what can you learn from it? What can you do for good? As much as we have this memorial for 9/11 and how horrific it was, there’s a 9/11 every day but it’s just a small one.”
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hristopher Todd Pitman, Trinity ’93, knew in high school that he wanted to go to Duke and knew soon after stepping onto campus that he wanted to work on Wall Street. He watched basketball games, played club hockey and bonded with his Delta Tau Delta brothers. A quietly competitive economics major, he took Japanese—the language his grandmother spoke around the house she lived in with Todd’s 9 TOWERVIEW
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