Atlanta man killed at World Trade Center remembered 25 years after 9/11
Sept. 11, 2026, marks 25 years since the terrorist attacks that killed 2,977 people in New York City, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, according to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
Among those killed was Adam White, a 26-year-old Atlanta native who worked at the World Trade Center.
For his stepmother, Georgia White, Sept. 11, 2001, remains the day that changed her life forever. She became Adam's stepmother when he was 4 years old.
"His dad, Shelby White, had custody of Adam when he and his first wife divorced," White said. "So Adam became mine when Shelby and I got married."
Shelby White died in 2025.
Adam worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services company with offices on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower.
"My coworker was in his office across from me, and he said, 'Hey, come here and look at this.' He had a TV in there," White said. "So I ran in to see what it was because he sounded frantic. They filmed the plane hitting the building. I said, 'It looks like Adam's building.' He said, 'It is.' So I ran back in my office, got my phone, called him, and it immediately went to voicemail."
Adam's remains were identified in 2004.
"I got a call from the Atlanta police trying to locate us," White said. "They found me at work and said that New York had called them, and they had recovered a few remains of Adam."
Some of Adam's ashes were interred at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood.
White showed CBS News Atlanta's Leondra Head a photo album filled with pictures of Adam.
"Here's Adam when he took piano lessons from my mother," White said. "Adam was very good and talented."
Adam graduated from Northside High School, now known as North Atlanta High School. He also performed in several school plays.
"He was in a lot of different plays," White said. "He was very vocal and very animated and that kind of thing. He was in the play 'Amadeus.'"
Adam would have turned 52 on Sept. 26.
He was among the 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees killed in the attacks. The company commemorates Sept. 11 each year with Charity Day, which raises money for charitable organizations worldwide.
