Calley, in her early 40s, lived in San Martin, California, and she was part of Cisco’s strategic alliances group. She had planned the following day to celebrate her 20th wedding anniversary and later that week, to enjoy her 43rd birthday.
Carl Russo and the rest of Cisco were shocked over this tragedy. Fiber Optics News (FON) reported, “Russo, who spent a year living across the street from the World Trade Center in Battery Park City, said a close friend of his was unaccounted for in the wreckage.” [1]
Almost everyone was affected by the tragedy and was faced with working through his or her emotions. Many sought solace in going on with business as usual.
“That’s all we can do,” Russo said to FON. “I spent a week going through . . . I’m not sure what emotions I was feeling. I’m looking at it now as let’s get back to work. I’ll take President Bush at his word, which was, ‘You guys get back to work, I’ll go worry about this.’”
Later that year, John Chambers announced the Suzanne Calley Memorial Garden outside building 9 on Cisco’s San Jose campus [2]. At the time, Chambers said, “We will put the benches in a place where we can go to reflect, whether it's thinking about our own issues or others and all the people who were affected by this.”
On 9/11, remember the fallen.
[1] Fiber Optics News, Cisco’s Russo Staying Put–For Now: Former Head of Optical Networking Eases Into New Role, Evan Bass, September 24, 2001, pp.1–2.
[2] Network World, Remembering Cisco employee Suzanne Calley on September 11th, September 11, 2007.