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Tech Execs Killed In Hijackings

A Sun Microsystems Inc. executive was killed in last week's terrorist attacks on New York's twin World Trade Center towers. Philip Rosenzweig, an executive in Sun's Solaris software unit, was a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 11.

"This has been a tragic event for our country, and has touched all of us at Sun," said Scott McNealy, Sun's chairman. "Our prayers and thoughts are with Phil's family and loved ones." Rosenzweig, 47, lived in Acton, Mass.

The plane on which Rosenzweig was a passenger struck the north tower, where Sun occupied the 25th and 26th floors with sales and support staff for its Wall Street customers. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based high-end server maker has reported that all of the 346 employees who worked in that building survived the attack. The offices served as home base for employees who were frequently out on calls at customer sites. The bulk of the Sun people were field engineers and sales and service staff, a Sun spokesperson said.

Among the 266 passengers who died aboard the four hijacked jetliners were a number of employees of high-tech firms, according to wire service reports.

On the plane with Rosenzweig were Daniel C. Lewin, co-founder and chief technology officer of Akamai Technologies. Lewin, 31, founded Akamai in 1998 with Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Tom Leighton and a group of MIT scientists, while he was still a graduate student, and Edmund Glazer, 41, CFO of network infrastructure systems maker MRV Communications, was also on that flight, which was en route from Boston to Los Angeles.

James E. Hayden, 47, CFO of Waltham, MA-based Web security firm Netegrity, was a passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 175 heading from Boston to Los Angeles.

Steven D. "Jake" Jacoby, 43, chief operating officer of Metrocall, a wireless messaging company in Alexandria, Va., was on American Airlines Flight 77.

The list of confirms deaths also includes Raytheon employees Peter Gay, 54, Stanley Hall, 68, David Kovalcin, 42, and Kenneth Waldie, 46; eLogic employees Jeff Mladenik and Andrew Curry Green; BEA Systems' engineer Ed Felt; and former 3Com public relations manager Mark Bingham, 31.

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About the Author

John K. Waters is a freelance writer based in Silicon Valley. He can be reached at [email protected].