Laurie Alburn, an academic adviser with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, found out at about 4 p.m. Sept. 11, 2001 that a cousin on her mother’s side, Jason Dahl of Ken Caryl, Colorado, was the pilot of United Flight 93, which crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
She and Dahl weren’t close, but they had a bond. His mother and Alburn’s grandfather were cousins. The last time she saw him was in 1995, when they took a family photo together, a couple of days before Dahl’s father passed away.
“Jason was a great person. He was a good-hearted guy,” Alburn said. “We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he would have done all he could while he was still alive on that plane.”
Jason Dahl (top left) with family members in 1995.
Alburn’s story is a single snapshot of a day that changed the nation and Colorado State University. Twenty years later, Sept. 11 still evokes a range of emotions among the CSU community. Below are just a few photos from that eventful week on campus and a few memories from CSU community members in their own words.
