Fullerton memorial is visual reminder of loss, sacrifice on 9/11

Twenty-five years after the terrorist attacks shook the nation, one man’s commitment to honoring the lives of those lost in New York City, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field through a Fullerton memorial has connected generations to the significance of 9/11.

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Neighbors, schoolchildren, veterans and first responders were among hundreds who gathered Friday outside the home of retired firefighter Scott Townley, who has spent more than two decades building a memorial to preserve the memory of those who died on Sept. 11, 2001, and pass on to those who came after the importance of remembering.

The memorial has taken on a life of its own, with hundreds of visitors paying their respects while the display is outside the Townleys’ Fullerton home for several days before the anniversary each year.

“My neighbor’s 101. She said she could never get back to the memorial in New York,” said Townley. “I told her, ‘This is really, really close to it.’ On a much smaller, unprofessional scale, but the best I could do. That’s what I did.”

What began with a hand-painted sign and a handful of flags to honor the fallen in 2001 has expanded over the years into hand-painted crosses for the 343 firefighters who died, with Townley later making crosses to also honor the NYPD and Port Authority police who were killed, a display of photos of all who died in the attacks, a wall with the names of military casualties in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that followed and more.

This year, more than 200 people attended the remembrance ceremony held Friday in partnership with Fullerton’s Police and Fire departments.

Townley, who has no personal ties to where the attacks took place or connection to anyone who died on 9/11, said his decision to create the memorial came from his experience working as a firefighter in Santa Ana for 38 years.

“If you had taken that number (343 firefighters killed) and transferred it to my fire department, it would have been every single firefighter on the job — our command staff, our secretaries, our payroll, everyone,” he said. “That’s what it meant for me.”

He said he started the project alongside his wife, Julie, calling it a labor of love, one whose success has sometimes made it hard on his own family to manage.

“I spent the next year in the garage, hand building and hand painting the 343 crosses. Then I would drive my Harley all the way out to Lake Elsinore. My friend had a cutting machine,” he said. “I would sit for hours, and I’d cut the names, then come back and put the names on the crosses. It took me a year.”

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“Then after that, I went, ‘That’s not enough.’ You know what? We lost a lot of kids in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he added.

Townley built military walls bearing the 5,500 names of service members who died. His most recent addition, an octagon display of photos of the 2,977 victims, uses images taken from happy moments such as their wedding day or high school graduation, and includes a space where family members can leave personal notes.

“Those are all personalized. I do not take those down,” he said. “They get stored away with the wall in the original spot that that family member put it, because my goal here is to have the utmost respect for everyone we lost that day.”

At Friday’s ceremony, the names of all who lost their lives were read aloud, starting in the early morning and continuing until the final name was read.

Having the photos on display as the names were read aloud gave what Townley said he saw as an opportunity for kids to learn about the attacks by connecting the lives of those lost to real people.

That visual, hands-on experience is what helps make the events of 9/11 real for children who weren’t alive to remember them, said Nancy Karcher, a Fullerton resident and teacher at Orangethorpe Elementary. The memorial has been an annual field trip for her class since 2017, a mixed-age group of K-3 students, alongside the school’s upper 4th-to-6th grade class.

“Mr. Townley was so excited,” said Karcher, who said he told her, “I’ve been waiting for a couple of kids to come.”

Fullerton Police Chief Jon Radus, who recalled being in the police academy when Sept. 11 occurred, opened the ceremony with a call for unity and preparedness. Building on that, Fire Chief Adam Loeser focused on the good that came out of the day, with people falling back on the simple lessons they learned as children, like extending a hand to help others up and being neighborly.

Addressing the crowd, Loeser closed, “The people that ran in and ran toward what was going on there to help others who were running out to save them. We all took the same oath. Service before self.”

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