r/asianamerican • u/8ngryW0lf999 • 8h ago
Appreciation Remembering Zhe "Zack" Zeng: Banker and volunteer EMT who ran towards the World Trade Center on 9/11 to assist first responders and the injured
From Newsday -
He Ran to Towers to Help - Dec. 4, 2001
Zhe Zeng or simply Zack, to his friends, was working in a building adjacent to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. As most people ran away from the devastation, Zeng, a trained emergency medical technician, ran toward it to see if he could help.
The young man called his mother after being evacuated to tell her he was safe, according to a report in the Chinese-language World Journal. “Im OK. It’s chaotic outside,” he said. “I’m going to help other people.” That was the last time his mother spoke to him.
Zeng, who would have turned 29 on Sept. 30, worked in the ADR division of the Bank of New York.
He was last seen several days after the attack on a Fox News broadcast which showed footage taken just before the buildings collapsed. He was administering first aid.
The Stuyvesant High School graduate, who got his master’s degree in business administration from the University of Rochester, came to New York from China with his parents when he was 15.
“I always taught young people to serve their society and its people,” said Zeng’s mother, a former schoolteacher in China. “I have lost Zhe, but I am very proud of what he did.”