Jeff gives young Welles a red bandanna, folding it neatly into his back pocket.

At 16, Welles completes firefighter training and joins Empire Hook and Ladder as a fully certified junior member.

Welles attends Boston College, where he studies business and earns a spot on the varsity lacrosse team.

After graduating from Boston College, Welles begins work as a junior associate at Sandler O'Neill on the South Tower's 104th floor.

While driving to work on the morning of September 11, Alison is struck by a powerful premonition of death.

United Airlines Flight 175 slams into the South Tower, killing everyone aboard and igniting thousands of gallons of jet fuel.

Welles leaves phone messages for his parents saying he is all right — the last words they ever hear from him.

Welles appears in the devastated 78th floor sky lobby and commands the injured survivors around him to follow him down the stairs.

Welles carries an injured woman on his shoulder down the stairs, sets her at the 61st floor, and heads back up.

The South Tower collapses in ten seconds, with Welles still inside.

A thousand mourners attend the Crowther family's memorial service at the Episcopal church in Nyack.

Searchers find Welles's remains in the South Tower lobby ruins, near the bodies of FDNY firefighters.

Alison reads a New York Times article describing a mysterious man with a red bandanna searching for a fire extinguisher on the 78th floor.

Alison and Jeff establish a charitable trust in Welles's name to promote good character and citizenship.

President Obama singles out Welles by name at the dedication of the National September 11 Memorial Museum.

From a childhood gift of a red bandanna to his death on September 11, 2001, Welles Crowther's life follows a path of quiet preparation for heroism. After training as a volunteer firefighter and playing varsity lacrosse at Boston College, Welles joins investment firm Sandler O'Neill on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower. On the morning of 9/11, as his mother senses disaster, Welles moves toward danger and guides survivors through the smoke and devastation of the burning building. He never makes it out before the South Tower collapses, and a memorial service draws a thousand mourners who barely knew his name. In the months that follow, his remains are identified and survivors begin sharing stories that illuminate his final hours. The red bandanna he always carried becomes a national symbol, culminating in President Obama honoring Welles by name at the dedication of the September 11 Memorial Museum.

Welles Crowther's life, heroism, and lasting legacy.

Jeff and Alison's first date — a smashing success — falls on September 11.

Welles's Pop Warner football team goes through an entire season without losing a single game.

Welles and his friends sneak to the roof of their old elementary school during his 11th birthday sleepover.

A school bully takes a swing at Welles, and Welles beats him in the ensuing fight.

Welles's fire alarm sounds mid-conversation with a girl he is asking on a date, and he immediately rushes to the call.

Welles calmly talks his friend Lee Burns out of a hallway fistfight with school bully Wykeme Corker.

At a Boston College party, a drunk student grabs Welles; Welles beats him but breaks his own hand in the process.

Welles and Boston College friend Chuck Platz move into a shared apartment in Manhattan's West Village.

Natalie McIver delays her 9/11 commute by an hour and sees a plane strike the North Tower from the ferry.

American Airlines Flight 11 crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, killing everyone aboard.

The Port Authority announces over the South Tower public address system that there is no need to evacuate.

Fire Marshal Jim Devery finds the injured Ling Young on the 51st floor and escorts her to an ambulance on the street.

Judy Wein, rescued from the 78th floor, identifies Welles as her rescuer after Alison sends her photographs.

Welles's friend Rob Lewis and his groomsmen wear red bandannas to Lewis's wedding reception in Welles's honor.

Welles's sisters discover that thousands of Boston College fans at a Florida stadium are waving red bandannas for their brother.

The story of Welles Crowther is assembled from countless smaller moments that reveal the character of a man shaped for heroism long before September 11. From a childhood filled with sports and mischief in Upper Nyack to college experiences that tested and refined him, Welles consistently put others first. On the day of the attacks, multiple lives intersected with his story — from Natalie McIver's delayed commute to the desperate chaos in the South Tower's sky lobby and the harrowing escape of Ling Young. After Welles's death, survivors and friends began weaving together the fabric of his legacy, from Judy Wein identifying him through photographs to his friend Rob Lewis honoring him at a wedding reception. That legacy spread further still, reaching a stadium full of strangers who had never met Welles but waved red bandannas for him all the same.

The people and moments that built the legend.

Jeff Crowther returns to active duty as a volunteer firefighter with Empire Hook and Ladder after years away.

Welles confesses the elementary school roof prank to his father and voluntarily accepts two weeks without television.

Passed over as hockey team captain, Welles asks his coach what he is doing wrong and receives blunt feedback.

After engaging and encouraging his teammates to greater intensity, Welles is named third team captain.

Welles fights his first real fire at 16 alongside his father, battling a blaze at Toni Morrison's house.

Welles meets his future roommate Chuck Platz while on a business internship program in Spain.

Despite being promoted to the lucrative trading desk, Welles confesses to his father his true desire to join the FDNY.

Welles's parents visit him for dinner two nights before 9/11, and Alison notices the red bandanna still in his back pocket.

Jeff Crowther's father calls to alert him about the World Trade Center, and Jeff turns on the television to see the disaster.

Late one night, Alison senses Welles's presence in the room, speaks aloud that she knows he is gone, and stops calling hospitals.

Firefighter Harry Wanamaker appears at Alison's door covered in ash after spending two days searching the World Trade Center ruins.

Alison locates Ling Young, who confirms that a man with a red bandanna guided her to safety inside the South Tower.

While cleaning out Welles's apartment, Jeff finds a partially filled-out application to join the FDNY dated a month before his death.

The FDNY posthumously makes Welles an honorary member, only the second person so honored in the department's 141-year history.

Despite all the public honors and tributes given to his son, Jeff Crowther still weeps every day for Welles.

Some of the most important moments in Welles Crowther's story are quiet pivots — choices and revelations that shaped who he became. His father's return to volunteer firefighting planted a seed of purpose; a coach's honest feedback transformed Welles into a vocal leader; his first real fire forged his courage. As an adult, Welles openly wrestled with the pull between a promising financial career and his deeper calling to serve as a firefighter. After September 11, his family pieced together his final hours through a series of stunning discoveries — Alison's sense of her son's presence, Ling Young's confirmation of his heroism, and a half-completed FDNY application found in his apartment. Each turning point reveals that Welles's sacrifice on 9/11 was not a sudden act of chance but the inevitable expression of a life built, decision by decision, on the willingness to help others.