Cantor heir recalls familys 9/11 losses and the kindergarten dropoff that spared Howard Lutnick

Brandon Lutnick recalled the family losses that shaped his childhood after the Sept.11 attacks — including the deaths of his uncle and godfather — as Cantor Fitzgerald marked 25 years since 658 of its New York employees were killed.“I don’t remember 9/11.

I was three years old.What I remember is everything that came after,” Lutnick, now chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, wrote in a LinkedIn post Friday.His father, then CEO Howard Lutnick, survived because he was dropping off Brandon’s older brother Kyle for his first day of kindergarten instead of his usual routine heading straight to Cantor’s offices high in the World Trade Center’s North Tower.“My father was dropping off my brother Kyle on his first day of kindergarten,” Brandon Lutnick wrote.“That is the reason he was not on the 105th floor of the North Tower.”American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower below Cantor’s offices, killing 658 of the firm’s 960 New York employees.Another 61 employees at Euro Brokers were also killed, Brandon Lutnick wrote.Among the dead were Howard Lutnick’s brother Gary — Brandon’s uncle — as well as Brandon’s godfather, Doug Gardner.“For most of my childhood, I understood 9/11 before I understood the words for it,” Brandon Lutnick wrote.“There were names in our house before I knew whose they were.”The attacks nearly wiped out Cantor, which occupied floors 101 through 105 of the North Tower and lost more than two-thirds of its New York workforce.Brandon Lutnick said outsiders expected the firm to collapse in the aftermath, as it was losing $1 million a day.Instead, his father pledged 25% of Cantor’s profits for five years and 10 years of health coverage to the families of employees who were killed.The commitment eventually totaled $180 million, according to Brandon Lutnick.Cantor also created a standing employment offer for the children of employees it lost, he said, adding that hundreds have since worked at the firm.“It was not ...