We are privileged to have Jefferson Crowther, his wife Allison, and their family, in our Gotham family. Although there were 34 (mostly-unrelated) people around the table at yesterday’s meeting of Formica and Open House, for me it was a family meal in which one of the family members shared something special -- something very special.
As Jefferson spoke of their incredible experiences surrounding last week’s opening of the 9/11 Museum, we were once-again touched by history in a very personal way that transcended the spoken words. Jefferson shared his comforting words as a grandfather to his granddaughter who never knew her uncle yet knew of his bravery and the emptiness left behind in the family. We were taken back to the moment that Jefferson gave his then seven-year old son a red bandana to use for the real stuff instead of the crisp white Irish linen handkerchief that was folded neatly into the jacket’s breast pocket. And how his mother marveled that Welles still carried that Red Bandana so many years later when she and Jefferson visited him in college. The Red Bandana that revealed the Man in the Red Bandana to his parents for the first time on Memorial Day weekend in 2002.

Gotham honors the memory of Welles Remy Crowther - the Man in the Red Bandana - with our family’s greatest honor - the Red Bandana Award. A tribute to self-sacrifice in helping others.

Thank you, Jefferson, again and again, for being part of our family.