Florida Author Prepares Book About Marriott at Ground Zero

Dennis Wooldridge, a Florida author who, along with his 86-year-old year old dad, was a guest at the Marriott WTC on Sept. 11, 2001, is writing a book in which the hotel serves as the center piece. He calls it "the forgotten building."
Wooldridge, a writer/producer for the ABC-TV affiliate in Orlando who writes articles and fiction in his spare time, hopes to publish the book by the end of the year.

"It's an important story," he said. The hotel, formerly the Vista, was substantially damaged and strengthened after the 1993 terrorist attack on the WTC. In the 2001 attack, most of the hotel was destroyed when the South and then the North Tower collapsed on top of it, though the rebuilt portion of the lobby remained intact until demolition, he said. More than 1,000 people were registered guests on Sept. 11.

"My original idea was a personal narrative about the things we saw and experienced, but in my research, I ran across a lot of people with incredible stories, a lot more interesting than mine," Wooldridge said.
Wooldridge and his dad had been vacationing in Maine and decided to stop in New York before going home. When the first plane hit, Wooldridge thought there had been an explosion. The exodus onto West Street convinced him he needed to get out fast. He woke his dad who has chronic lung problems. The two managed to get down the stairs from their 9th floor room and ultimately onto the only vessel that took evacuees to Ellis Island.

Back in Florida, Wooldridge found NABE's 9/11 page on the Internet and the stories of numerous others who had been at the Marriott on Sept. 11. He contacted dozens of people, including NABE members Chris Varvares of Macroeconomic Advisers and Diana Gregg, a reporter for BNA. He talked with a Chicago woman with multiple sclerosis who got out of the Marriott with help from hotel staff and onto a New Jersey-bound ferry on her motorized scooter. "She was on the same floor as Varvares, interacted with him and feels he was one of the people who saved her," Wooldridge said.

Wooldridge has completed much of the research for the book but says "there's always room for another intriguing story!" Contact him at dewooldridge@hotmail.com.

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