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<p><em>Douglas Brian “Doug” Gurian</em> was taken from us very abruptly and very publicly in the prime of his life during the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He was the only West Pointer killed that day, although more than 100 others would follow during the ensuing Global War on Terror over the subsequent two decades. Doug was gentle, quirky, and upbeat with a passion for adventure. He was a faithful husband to Susan and a dedicated father to Tyler and Eva.</p>
<p>Doug was born and raised in New York City as an only child to Bruce and Marie Gurian. His family’s beach house on Fire Island became his “happy place,” where he spent every summer pursuing endless adventures with his posse of childhood friends, including Doug Gardner, who also perished at the WTC. An annual softball game is held every summer there in the memory of both Dougs. </p>
<p>Doug Gurian graduated from the prestigious Horace Mann School, where he hit the longest home run in the school’s history and was the top runner on its cross-country team. He was an avid skier who conquered many slopes in the U.S. and Europe. Doug attended NYU for a year before entering West Point in 1982. He was well travelled as a kid and seemed more sophisticated, without being pretentious, than many of his classmates.</p>
<p>Doug was a tremendous athlete. Possessor of an enviable physique, he breezed through all the physical challenges presented by the Academy. He was a recruited baseball player who could throw a fastball at 90 mph as a freshman and walked on to the Squash Team. Doug was quite proud of the fact that he graduated among the top 10 individuals in his class of approximately 1,000 in the Department of Physical Education’s order of merit. </p>
<p>Doug’s relationship with the Tactical Department was a different story, however. He earned the distinction of being a Century Man, having amassed well over 100 hours of disciplinary tours over four years, all for a seemingly unending number of minor infractions. Doug was unflappable and took everything in stride. He simply didn’t allow rules and regulations to get in the way of exercising what he believed to be common sense or simply having a good time. During the second semester of his firstie year, Doug’s tactical officer warned him that he was in jeopardy of not graduating because his military ranking was just third from the bottom of the class. There was no shame on his part or panic to conform. Instead, Doug became obsessed with trying to guess which two classmates were ranked lower than him.</p>
<p>Doug loved spending time with his friends. He shared his love for Fire Island, jazz music, sports trivia, and his preferred cocktails with dozens of classmates. He was at his best in small group or individual conversations. He listened intently and analyzed every word for nuance and inflection. His rhetorical skills would elevate even the most mundane exchange into something interesting and entertaining, much like a scene from Seinfeld (before the show existed). Doug was quirky without being eccentric. He tucked his tee shirt into his boxer shorts and put on his socks before putting on his pants. Even at the Academy, his mother labeled his clothes and uniforms with his name because Doug tended to lose things.</p>
<p>Doug branched Air Defense Artillery upon graduation and served a tour in Germany before leaving the Army in 1990 and returning to NYC. Doug met Susan Mallery at a bar in Manhattan by chance in 1990, and they were married in 1992. Tyler and Eva followed. In 1997, the young family relocated from NYC to Tenafly, NJ to raise their kids in the suburbs. At this point, Doug was a content, devoted family man who was immersed in the kids’ lives.</p>
<p>Doug spent the first 10 years of his civilian career at Cantor Fitzgerald in their offices at the top of the WTC. By early 2001, he joined Radianz, a financial services technology company based in midtown Manhattan. On that fateful morning, Doug was at Windows on the World for a technology conference. Ron Perlman was one of the last people to speak to Doug when he helped set up Doug’s exhibit booth. He reported that Doug was upbeat and energetic that morning. When Ron discovered that some lights were missing from the booth, he offered to install them. Doug looked at the beautiful sunlit room and said, “Nah, don’t bother.” That decision allowed Ron to leave the WTC by 8:30am, and Ron credits Doug’s decision and relaxed attitude with saving his life. </p>
<p>Doug squeezed a lot of life into a brief period and touched many lives. Doug Gurian’s name is etched in the granite of the 9/11 memorial adjacent to that of his childhood friend, Doug Gardner’s. A New York Waterways ferry was christened in his name and dedicated to all the commuters that never came home that day. In late September 2001, a couple hundred of Doug’s friends and family gathered on the beach at Fire Island to celebrate his life and share memories. While unfortunately premature, it was unquestionably Doug’s perfect ending to a life well lived.</p>
<p><em>— R. Scott Poirier ’86, E-1</em></p>
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