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of those who fell on September 11, 2001
Police Officer Nathaniel Webb
Assignment on September 11, 2001:
Holland Tunnel, Jersey City, NJ
Officer Nathaniel Webb, fifty-seven, was last
seen at roll call on September 11. He was one
of three Port Authority officers assigned to
the Holland Tunnel who were killed that day.
A Port Authority Officer for twenty-eight years,
Webb was considered a generous and righteous
man by his friends and colleagues. He was the
recipient of a Meritorious Active Duty Award
and a Police Group Citation.
Devoted to family, Officer Webb visited his
housebound mother several times a week. He was
dedicated to his two daughters, Camille and
Valerie. At the March 11, 2002 ceremony to dedicate
the “Tribute in Light,” Valerie
was chosen to illuminate the two banks of forty-four
spotlights that were in honor of those who’d
lost their lives.
The Path of Righteousness
In the garden was an apple tree, and they were
forbidden to eat of the fruit of that tree.
Nathaniel Webb and his cousins picked his grandfather’s
still-green apples anyway. When the old man
saw that the apples were missing he demanded
to know who had disobeyed him.
“We didn’t tell the truth,”
said Delores Matthews, Mr. Webb’s cousin.
“But when he was cornered, Nathaniel always
got teary-eyed and told the truth. Then we all
got punished, but he never did.”
From that almost biblical beginning, Mr. Webb
remained on the side of authority for the rest
of his life. He was a Port Authority police
officer for 28 years and, said Mrs. Matthews,
“he was always trying to keep everyone
else on the straight and narrow.”
His friends and colleagues knew Officer Webb
as a righteous and generous man. He took care
of his housebound mother, stopping in several
times a week to spend time with her. Sometimes,
when a few officers went out for drinks or dinner
after work, he would pick up the tab.
Officer Sharon Feoktistov, who worked with
Officer Webb at the Holland Tunnel, said that
once when she was stuck in Brooklyn with a flat
tire, he drove from his home in Jersey City
just to sit with her and wait for the tow truck.
“And the thing was,” she said, “I
didn’t even have to ask.”