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Shopping Centers Today -> December 2001
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INDUSTRY HERO PUT OTHERS FIRST
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| J. Bruce Eagleson |
There were 11 Westfield America employees working at the World Trade Center (WTC) when the terrorists struck in September, and 10 of them got out alive. J. Bruce Eagleson made sure of that.
Eagleson, Westfield’s regional vice president of management for the East Coast, had been detailed to the WTC to set up the management team for the complex’s shopping concourse, acquired by the Los Angeles-based company on July 24. When the hijacked aircraft struck the building, he helped his colleagues and others leave the south tower. He is then believed to have returned to the Westfield offices shortly before the collapse to get two-way radios to stay in touch. He was not seen again.
“Heroes don’t just live in history books,” said Westfield America CEO Peter Lowy, speaking at a Sept. 20 company memorial service in Los Angeles. “They are our friends, our family members and our colleagues.”
Eagleson’s heroism also was cited at a memorial service held in Middletown, Conn., close to his Middlefield hometown.
“We are overwhelmed by the heroism of so many people on Sept. 11,” the Rev. Joseph Ashe of St. John’s, Middletown, told family members and friends, according to a report in The Hartford (Conn.) Courant. “It was Bruce who made sure all who worked for him got out of that building.”
For Eagleson, 53, selflessness was a reflex nurtured decades ago. As a teen-ager he had given swimming lessons to children with disabilities, and organized a fund-raiser to finance the group that provided the training, his brother, William, recalled at the service.
A lifelong Connecticut resident and 13-year Westfield veteran, Eagleson was general manager of Westfield Shoppingtown Meriden (Conn.) before assuming his vice president’s post in June 2000. He was an ICSC member since 1989. Prior to joining Westfield, Eagleson was a business manager with the Old Saybrook (Conn.) school system.
The loss of Eagleson puts the company’s loss of the shopping center in perspective, Lowy said at the company memorial service.
“In these last few days, Bruce Eagleson has reminded us that what is material is replaceable.”
Eagleson is survived by his wife, Gail, and sons Kyle, 21, Timothy, 19, and Brett, 15. Contributions may be made to the Bruce Eagleson Memorial Scholarship, c/o Coginchaug Regional High School Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 120, Durham, CT 06422.
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