The Name Keeper

The planes may have struck New York and D.C., but the impact of the destruction and tragedy on September 11 instantly jarred the entire nation. Like so many other Americans, Jason E. Whitlow 99, watched the terrible events unfold on television from afar, helpless to stop the fires or hold up the towers. And as reporters on every station endlessly reported the facts of what had happened and cycled through the chronology of the morning events in excruciating detail, the one question that pounded in peoples brains remained unanswered. Who survived? With cell phone connections down and landlines a scarce commodity, the flow of personal information was slow to reach friends and family members. Unwilling to sit and wait for the news to come in at its own pace, Whitlow, in his San Francisco home, turned to his computer for help. In so doing, he eased the worst fears of the Harvard community.

Immediately, the former Dunster resident and computer science concentrator set about contacting friends in the areas of the attacks via e-mail. As soon as he heard of their safety, he posted the good news on his website, www.jasonwhitlow.com. Fortunately, he discovered his close college friends were safe. On Tuesday I was stunned, depressed, and scared, he recounts. To this moment it is still in some sense unbelievable. But at the time, I needed to do something, for my own sake. What began as a dozen names quickly grew as the vast and powerful network of Harvard alumni struggled to find their own.

Amid the responses from his friends was an e-mail sent by Lara Fox 99 over the Harvard 99 webgroup suggesting that those in New York and Washington let fellow graduates know of their condition. To avoid crowding everyones inbox, Tally Zingher 99 took on the responsibility of consolidating all those messages into periodic email updates to the whole webgroup. For Whitlow, it just made sense to take it a step further and post the list on his webpage.

News of Whitlows list spread and traffic on his site shot up. Over the course of the week following the attacks, the number of names grew at a feverish pace. There were almost 2,000 names by weeks end. Whitlow received over 750 e-mails with names and stories of relieved friends and family. His inbox has been flooded with e-mails full of appreciation for the work he did in the hours and days after the tragedy. Luckily everyone I know is alright and I havent heard of any Harvard people who are not okay and who havent been found, he says. But it is obviously still hard to confirm these things. It just felt good to be able to help out, to give people a resource and provide this information.

Whitlows work was made easier when the Alumni Association created a bulletin board, located at http://myharvardalumni.harvard.edu/sept11, for people to post their status and location. Now he is immersed not in copying and pasting names and graduation years, but, like the rest of the nation, in dealing with the repercussions of the actual event. I hope we can be thoughtful and creative about how we help each other and interact with other nations after this tragedy, he says. We need to strive for the open discussion that can make the aftermath of this event one of the most positive and productive times for this country and the world.