WOMEN WHO INSPIRE
Aftershock
9/11 CHANGED AREA WOMAN’S LIFE
S t o r y a n d p h o t o b y Vi c k i B e n n i n g t o n
T
errorist attacks in New York City on September 11,
2001 took the lives of many. They changed the lives of
even more.
On that fateful day, Penelope Schmidt of Alton,
Illinois, lived with her husband at 10th Street and
University Place in Manhattan.
“We watched it unfold, and afterward, we had to wear masks, keep
our windows closed, and our IDs were checked every time we came
into our neighborhood. Walls everywhere were lined with pictures of
missing people,” she said. “It was life-changing.”
So much so that they both decided to leave their jobs.
“Everyone who lived there acted different after the attacks,” Schmidt
said. “A quietness came over Manhattan. Nobody wanted war. We
all had a sense of appreciation, respect and compassion for others. I
decided I wanted to do something of greater service, but I wasn’t sure
what that was.”
Schmidt was born in New York, where her father taught at Cornell
University, and her English mother was a ballet dancer for the Royal
Ballet Company, while teaching dance at Ithaca College. The family
moved to Elsah, Illinois, where Schmidt’s father became head of
Principia College’s Studio Art Department, and she spent her formative
years in the historical village.
Schmidt was somewhat sheltered, riding a bus to The Principia in St.
Louis for elementary and high school, and attending Principia College,
where she double-majored in art history and French.
Her parents met in Paris while her father was th