November 2001
How he died saving others at the World Trade Center and how he'll help FSU help Kids
A stockbroker who died in the collapse
of the World Trade Center Sept. 11 - apparently trying to save
other lives - left almost half of his estate to his nephew, other
autistic children and Florida State University.
The will of Adam Arias, 37, who was vice president of a brokerage firm on the 84th floor of Tower 2, specified that part of his estate would be used for his nephew and programs helping autistic children.
The Applied Behavior Analysis program at FSU in Panama City
has already helped Adam Arias' autistic nephew, Vincent, 6.
Vincent's parents plan to use the Arias inheritance for a scholarship
for that program.
They don't really have to. The will was never signed, but
Arias' widow said he intended to leave 40 percent of his estate
to Vincent and "any autistic cause that we see fit,"
according to Vincent's father, Air Force Major Don Arias.
Don Arias, public affairs officer for the 1st Air Force, was in his Tyndall office when hijacked airliners crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.
"I have CNN on all the time in the office," he said, so he saw that a plane had hit Tower 1.
Don Arias had been notified that a hijacked plane was heading for New York.
"I knew my brother was working in Tower 2, so I called right away.
"He said, 'You wouldn't believe what we're seeing: people
falling out of the building next door, bodies flying through
the air.'
"I said, 'That's no accident. Get out of there. Go home.'
"He said, 'I gotta go. I'll see ya.' That was the last I
talked to him."
The reports indicate that Adam Arias got out and then returned
to help others escape.
"He chased everyone out," his brother said, "and
then he went back in when he heard there were people still in
the office."
Some of the survivors reported seeing him on the 50th floor,
heading down. Others saw him on the street, helping firefighters
direct people away from the buildings.
And one said he saved her and others when he came back and shouted, "Get out - that was a hijacked plane."
"So I wish he would have just gotten out, but he did a lot of good," said his brother, Don Arias. "The truth of the matter is, he did get out, but he went back in again and got out, and he was still trying to get people out of harm's way when the building collapsed . They found him in the street."
The scholarship named for Adam Arias will be for graduate students working with autistic children and seeking certification as behavioral analysts.
"FSU has really helped us already," Don Arias said. "We have a graduate student named Gina Ballone who is here two hours a day, five days a week, working with Vincent. She did it as part of her practicum . ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) is a very effective way to help autistic children. It's done wonders for Vincent . as a parent it's been really wonderful.
"My son is pretty much non-verbal. He's made great progress. He can speak in two-or three-word sentences when he feels like it. The scholarship I feel is a very fitting tribute in my brother's memory."
Don said his brother Adam was the youngest of five children, and their father was an engine man on a Staten Island ferry. Adam's wife, Margit, was scheduled to have surgery for ovarian cancer, and Adam was deeply involved in her fight against cancer, when she lost him.
"She wanted to wait (for the surgery) 'until my husband comes home,'" Don said, "and needless to say he didn't come home, and she wasn't going to have it.
"As a family we convinced her to have it because Adam . would want her to have it."
He said Margit Arias had also told the family that Adam wanted
the rest of his estate to go to his other nieces and nephews.
"He was the last person on earth you would expect anything
to happen to," Don said of Adam." He's been working
on Wall Street since he was 17 in the mail room.
"For what it's worth, it's great solace to us that this was his final act of Christian charity when he died.
"It's great solace that out of all the people that are missing, he was found and identified and was the very first set of remains found whole, intact."
For information about the Adam Arias scholarship, call Gail Robbins at 850-522-2008 or e-mail grobbins@mail.pc.fsu.edu.
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