ELMIRA, NY - Each year, the Elmira College community holds a commemorative event to honor the lives lost during the 9/11 attacks. The event includes the placement of nearly 3,000 flags in memory of those lost and a special one to honor EC alumnus Darryl McKinney '97, who died in the World Trade Center.

Today, Elmira College students, along with local first responders, held a moment of silence and planted flags, one to honor each of the 2,996 people who died in the 9/11 attacks on the 24th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attacks in human history.

He honed his education and skills after graduating from Elmira College into positions as a director of a youth program in the Bronx, then as a district manager for Coca-Cola. At the time of the attacks, he was a brokerage clerk at Cantor Fitzgerald. 

He was preparing to take the test on Sept. 22 to become a broker and was engaged to a fellow Cantor employee, Angela Rosario, who was also lost in the attacks.

According to McKinney's mother, he was the type of child who, as she puts it, "Always ventured out. He wanted to go further, discover new things. He seemed to sense that no matter what he thought about doing, he might actually be able to pull it off."

His success was evident both as a Soaring Eagle athlete and student, as he led his Elmira College basketball team to the college finals. 

In 1993, McKinney received a full athletic academic scholarship to Elmira College to play basketball. He was one of the team's star players and was also on the Athletic Advisory Board. In 1997, he received his bachelor's degree in political science and then his master's in adult education the following year. After college, he participated in various year-round tournaments, including the famous Rucker's.