He died trying to save another human life.

John Hart died in the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11 attacks. He was working at the center while his family lived in Ohio – a situation they thought would be temporary, said Helen Bentley, junior interior design major and New York native.

Hart was the father of Bentley’s former boyfriend and Kent State student Jeff Hart.

“(He) was on the 138th floor or something like that,” Bentley said, and he died there because he stayed to help a man who was having a heart attack.

Hart’s family still receives money from government agencies and organizations such as the Red Cross because of their loss, she said.

After the attacks, Bentley said she attended memorials held in New York to honor the victims with Hart’s family.

“The first reunion was emotional, and the second time was more (exploitative),” she said.

Bentley thought it was an “insult to the survivors,” and said if someone is profiting from the sales, it is not good.

Contact academic affairs reporter Heather Scarlett at [email protected].