Saddle River’s William Raub contracted food poisoning the weekend before Sept. 11, 2001, and didn’t go into work at the World Trade Center the day before. His daughter Rebecca, then 6, wanted him to feel better so she decided to make him his favorite food. It was the last time Rebecca would ever spend with her dad.
Rebecca Raub Story
By Ciara Copell
Rutgers University
The last time Rebecca Raub saw her father was the night of Sept. 10, 2001. The 6-year-old had just made him an English muffin before going to bed. Her father, William Raub, had been sick that day and missed work, a rare occurrence at his job at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center North tower.
The next day he still wasn’t feeling well, so he planned to only go in for a half day. However, on that fateful day, his plans were cut short. Rebecca Raub, also known by her nickname Becca, recalls running as fast as she could up the stairs of their Saddle River home seeking her mother’s expert advice on that last night with her father.
Making daddy a delicious English muffin was no easy task, especially because it was her first time using the toaster. With each new obstacle, she dashed up and down the stairs, getting directions from mom then putting them in action. The final outcome was a perfect English muffin topped with daddy’s favorite ingredient, a generous serving of peanut butter. Finally content with her work, Rebecca delivered her culinary masterpiece to her father. She didn’t realize it would be the last meal he would eat.
Now 16 years old and a junior at Bergen County Academies in Hackensack, Rebecca is a spitting image of her father with short dark brown hair and slim features. She is involved in the Junior Statesmen of America Club and Model UN and enjoys reading Kurt Vonnegut in her spare time. She is also what many would call a travel junkie. Rebecca has already been to most of Western Europe, New Zealand, Australia, and Fiji. Her next stop is Singapore.
When it comes to her father, Rebecca likes to remember the good times. She lights up when she talks about her memories of her dad. Her favorite is the time he taught her how to golf on a summer day in 2001.
“He would take me to Spook Rock Golf Club, and we’d hit balls on the driving range, and he taught me how to swing a club,” recalled Rebecca. “On the car ride home he would open all the windows and put on Dave Matthews Band,” noted Rebecca, an avid Dave Matthews Band fan but not on the level of her father, she admits. “Our favorite song was Crash Into Me, so he would put it on and we sang at the top of our lungs.”
Now, it is clear Raub’s efforts to pass his love for golf on to his daughter have worked well. Rebecca was named MVP of her varsity golf team and placed third in the Bergen County tournament this past season. She was also the highest ranked freshman in the county and was named by the Bergen County Women Coaches Association first team all-league and second team all-county both her freshman and sophomore years.
Golf has become such a big part of her life that Rebecca and her mother, Maureen Raub, are currently developing a fashion line of golf clothing targeted at teen girls. Rebecca serves as head designer of all the pieces, which are mostly comprised of stylish shorts, and makes the final decisions for the company, aptly titled The Short Game.
“It was very hard to find clothes that she liked and felt comfortable wearing that were appropriate for golf courses and country clubs,” said Maureen Raub. “And if you don’t feel confident and great going out there it can affect your game.”
William Raub was an institutional stock trader at Cantor Fitzgerald for 16 years. He started working for the company immediately after his 1985 graduation from Siena College in Loudonville, NY. Raub was also in the World Trade Center during the 1993 bombing, when he helped an injured colleague down 104 flights of stairs to the exit.
“I think of him as a hero,” Rebecca said. “I think in his last few moments he was trying to help other people. That’s something he would do,”
Not only does Rebecca carry on her father’s love for golf through her involvement with school, but the Raub family has also found another way to honor his memory. Maureen started The William R. Raub Memorial Foundation, which holds an annual golf tournament in his name. The tournament has raised more than $500,000 for various charities since 9/11, including a scholarship and the development of a trading room at Siena College.
Both Rebecca and her brother Liam, now 10 years old, attend the tournament, which this year will be on Sept. 6 at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City. This location is especially appealing because it has breathtaking views of lower Manhattan, where the Twin Towers once stood.
“We wanted it to be a very special venue for the 10th anniversary,” explained Maureen Raub. “There’s a certain synergy in having the tournament with that as the backdrop. It seemed like a meaningful fit.”
In each of the past years Rebecca successfully raised more than $10,000 for the foundation. This year, her personal fundraising goal is $20,000. The tournament not only raises money in Raub’s name but also serves as a celebration of his life. Rebecca plays a few holes and also gives a speech about her father.
If golf serves every day as a reminder of the father who taught Rebecca his beloved game, so does the memory of those days just before and after 9/11.
On Sept. 9, Liam Raub was christened. Rebecca wore a stretchy tie-dye tank top her father bought her when they went on vacation. After the christening, the family went out to dinner, where her father got food poisoning.
After carefully making her father’s English muffin Sept. 10, Rebecca went to bed. She woke up in the early morning hours and, as was her routine when this occurred, scurried into her parents’ room.
“I woke up at 5 or so in the morning and ran into their bedroom. I heard him in the shower so I just went and fell asleep in his spot in bed. When I woke up again it was time to go to school,” Rebecca said.
Rebecca made her way into school and was having a normal day until she saw a boy playing with blocks. The boy made two tall towers and threw another block to knock them over. Rebecca walked over to him and asked why he was making the towers fall. “It’s what happened this morning to the World Trade Centers. A plane crashed into them and they fell,” the boy said. But, Rebecca didn’t believe it. Throughout the rest of the day, other kids started leaving school. Rebecca was one of the last to be picked up.
The car ride home wasn’t what Rebecca expected. Mom was very quiet and there was nothing on the radio. As she and Maureen sat in traffic, Rebecca thought of the boy with the blocks and asked, “Mom, did a plane really hit Daddy’s building? Is he okay?” Her mother replied that his building was hit, but she didn’t know if he was okay.
When they arrived home, friends and family were already waiting for them. Rebecca walked around the room getting hugs from concerned relatives, but she just wanted Daddy to come back.
“I was happy to see the people I hadn’t seen in awhile and happy that I was getting so much attention, but I remember at points just wanting to be alone and going to my room to get away,” Rebecca recalled.
At the end of the day, when her father usually arrived home, she sat on her front steps, waiting for him to return.
For the first few days, Rebecca and her mother remained hopeful. Maureen called every hospital in the tri-state area to see if Raub was there or if there was anyone they couldn’t identify. The family was desperate for him to return home safely. In those first days, family kept Rebecca busy so that Maureen could have time to herself. Rebecca didn’t cry much.
“There were a lot of people there so there was a lot going on the first couple days,” Rebecca recalled “.I was sad but still hopeful. But, within a few days I just came to accept that he wasn’t coming back,”
On Sept. 29, the family held Raub’s memorial service. At Saint Gabriel’s Church in Saddle River, Rebecca and her family, along with friends, former colleagues, and others her father knew, came to the small white church to mourn Raub’s death. Rebecca sat in the pew wearing the same tie-dye tank top she had worn weeks earlier to her brother’s christening. When it was time for the offerings, Rebecca brought one of her father’s golf clubs to the front. For the rest of the hour-long service, she cried more than ever before.
It wasn’t long before Rebecca started doubting everything she knew. Without her father, her faith in God faltered and she stopped attending church. “When my dad died, I thought ‘Wait. What God would let that happen?’ It just made me question everything,” Rebecca said.
Rebecca and her mother started to cope by attending 9/11 support groups. She has also gone to therapy on and off since 9/11. Rebecca believes that it was helpful at first but not so much anymore.
“I was fortunate to have someone to listen to me all the time even if I didn’t want to talk about it, but now it’s kind of a nuisance. I haven’t been there in about four weeks and I have no intention of going back.”
Now, Rebecca has largely moved on from 9/11. Even with the recent death of Osama Bin Laden, she had very little to say. “I’m happy we finally accomplished what we went over there for,” she said nonchalantly.
Rebecca still thinks about her dad everyday, but she has learned to live and grow without him. When she graduates from high school, she hopes to pursue journalism at Stanford University. Will she continue with golf in college? Perhaps. Right now she is enjoying the sport her father taught her and moving up through the county ranking.
Interestingly, William’s reverence for the game of golf also figures prominently in where the family will scatter his ashes. Maureen spent a long time trying to figure out what to do with the few remains the family received. Now they plan to spread his ashes at St. Andrews Golf Course in Scotland, where the game was first invented.
St. Andrews may bring the final closure that the Raub family needs, but there will always be something missing for Rebecca. “I miss him and all the little things he did,” she said. “But mostly I miss having a dad.”
Rutgers University
Ciara Copell is a junior from Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey and is majoring in Journalism and Media Studies. She writes for The Daily Targum and tutors students in English. Along with these activities, she is Vice President of Colleges Against Cancer and a chairperson on the Rutgers Relay for Life committee. Copell is interested in politics and plans to double-major in Political Science. She has completed two internships, one in public relations at Rasky Baerlein and one at Greek Media Group, an international broadcast communications company.