09/11/2026
Thank you, Dean of OCU Law and OKC Mayor David Holt ‘09 for reminding us of the bravery that Rick Rescorla ‘75 showed on September 11.
This week we honor those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever on September 11, 2001. Especially those with Oklahoma City ties.
Rick Rescorla is a graduate of Oklahoma City University School of Law, where I serve as Dean. His portrait hangs in my office. Rick was born in Hayle, Cornwall, England.
At age 16, Rick voluntarily enlisted in the British Army, training as a paratrooper. He served with an intelligence unit in Cyprus. He later served in the Metropolitan Police in London.
In 1963, he moved to the United States and enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam. He earned the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.
After Vietnam, Rick came to Oklahoma and spent nearly a decade getting his undergraduate degree and master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma, followed by a J.D. from Oklahoma City University School of Law.
By 1985, he was working corporate security at the World Trade Center in Manhattan for the company that would eventually become Morgan Stanley.
Rick predicted the exact nature of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, but was ignored. Between 1993 and 2001, he would regularly lead evacuation drills at Morgan Stanley, sometimes in tension with senior executives who resented the disturbances.
On September 11, 2001, his office was on the 44th floor of the South Tower. Morgan Stanley occupied 22 floors in the South Tower.
The North Tower was hit first. In the 17 minutes that passed before the South Tower was hit at the 77th floor, a P.A. announcement was made to workers in the South Tower that they were safe and should remain at their desks. Rick overruled the announcement and with his bullhorn in hand, led 2,700 Morgan Stanley employees out of the South Tower.
During the evacuation, he called his best friend and said “The dumb sons of b****** told me not to evacuate. They said it's just Building One. I told them I'm getting my people the f*** out of here."
As he directed the evacuation in the the stairwells, he sang a song to calm the nerves of the Morgan Stanley employees. He sang one based on the Welsh song "Men of Harlech”:
Men of Cornwall stop your dreaming;
Can't you see their spearpoints gleaming?
See their warriors' pennants streaming
To this battlefield.
Men of Cornwall stand ye steady;
It cannot be ever said ye
for the battle were not ready;
Stand and never yield!
Rick was last seen on the 10th floor heading upwards to look for more Morgan Stanley employees.
Fifty-six minutes after the South Tower impact, it collapsed, killing everyone still inside. Out of 2,700 Morgan Stanley employees, only 13 died that day, including Rick.
