Selvin Chacon Ovando Captures Dennis Edwards Scholarship

The passage of time might dull the pain, but it really doesn’t make it any easier to discuss a terrible event that strikes so close to home. Patti Edwards stood by herself at the microphone on the stage in the same auditorium that her late husband had sat in so many times as a student at Huntington High School.

Ms. Edwards was at the high school last week to present the Dennis Edwards Memorial Scholarship Award to senior Selvin Chacon Ovando. The scholarship honors a Huntington Class of 1984 member who was cut down on the morning of September 11, 2001 while working as a partner with global bond giant Cantor Fitzgerald atop One World Trade Center in Manhattan.

Mr. Edwards was among the nearly 3,000 completely innocent Americans, including more than 400 uniformed firefighters and police officers who were killed when terrorists hijacked four planes on the morning of 9/11/01 and staged suicide attacks by flying them into the north and south World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed in an open field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers tried to overwhelm the terrorists and prevent them from completing their attack on a destination believed to be either the US Capitol or the White House.

The Huntington grad was in the upper reaches of the north tower (One World Trade Center) when the hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the building’s north façade at about the 80th floor at 8:46 a.m. The attack killed 1,402 at or above the impact zone.

Known around town as “The Mayor,” Mr. Edwards married his high school sweetheart, Patti and the couple bought her parents’ home. Mr. Edwards renovated the structure himself, a testament to his ingenuity and determination.

The Huntington alum was a “people person” if ever there was one and he especially enjoyed assisting those who needed it. When terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, Mr. Edwards carried a pregnant woman down 80 flights of stairs and saved her life.

“The scholarship was created by Sheila Edwards Doyle, his eldest sister,” Ms. Edwards said. “This year, his youngest sister, Eileen O’Brien has generously donated to the scholarship as well.”

Mr. Ewards was born and raised in Huntington, the youngest of five children. “Dennis and I met in the summer of 1985 while we were working together at Waldbaums in downtown Huntington,” Ms. Edwards said. “We were married in 1996 and had one daughter, Alexa Marie. Anyone who knew Dennis will tell you that the only thing he loved more than life itself was people. He did not just love ‘his’ people, but rather he was enamored by each person he met. My husband had a way of listening to others that let them know they were important. He truly never met a stranger.”

The Edwards scholarship is prized among Huntington’s graduating seniors. “Dennis somehow connected with more people in his short 35 years here than most of us will in a lifetime,” Ms. Edwards said. “Many of us referred to Dennis as our ‘go-to’ person and not only did he love being asked to help, but he genuinely appreciated the act of helping others. He lived a life in which he worked to leave each person better than he found them.”

The Edwards scholarship honors his legacy at Huntington High School. Mr. Chacon plans to attend Suffolk Community College in the fall.

“This senior, much like my husband, is someone that others are proud to know,” Ms. Edwards said. “He is recognized for his resilience and tenacity through life’s hardships. He has not only persevered through challenges, but he has managed to lift those around him while doing so. His teachers are amazed by his humility throughout his acts of kindness and successes. May he continue to carry himself with such respect and kindness at Suffolk Community College and beyond.”