Pasadenans David and Lynn Angell, Killed in the Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks, Remembered As A Kind, Loving and Generous Couple

After visiting Cape Cod, David and Lynn Angell of Pasadena decided to head back to Los Angeles early that Tuesday morning — Sept. 11, 2001 — on American Airlines Flight 11 out of Boston’s Logan International Airport. 

The couple was excited to be going back, with the Emmys five days away. David, a TV executive producer/screenwriter, had Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce, stars of his hit show “Frasier,” nominated that year for the coveted awards.

The 54-year-old Angell, who started his career writing for “Cheers” and “Archie Bunker’s Place,” among others, was the creator and executive producer, along with Peter Casey and David Lee, of “Frasier” and “Wings.”

But in the few minutes that it takes a Boeing 767 to get from Boston to New York City, the plane was hijacked by assassins led by terrorist mastermind Mohamed Atta, making it the first of two jetliners to tear through the top floors of New York’s famed World Trade Center. All 92 people on Flight 11 were killed. Both of the mammoth facility’s Twin Towers were set on fire, both of them spewing smoke from burning jet fuel into the crystal blue morning sky before collapsing. A total of 2,996 people in four planes used in the attack and in or near the towers died. Some 25,000 people suffered nonlife-threatening injuries.

The entertainment world — like everyone else already reeling from al-Qaeda’s attacks on New York, the Pentagon, and a failed fourth attack in which passengers fought back before their jet crashed into a field in Pennsylvania — was stunned to learn of the deaths of David and Lynn Angell.

“It’s clear that (David) Angell had a significant impact: on the people in his life, on the entertainment and television industries, and on the broader world,” wrote Calvin Motley of Show Biz Cheatsheet. Posthumously recognized, Angell became the namesake of the American Screenwriters Association’s David Angell Humanitarian Award for his philanthropic efforts.

“His loss, as was every other loss that happened on September 11, was a massive tragedy,” Motley wrote.

People in Pasadena, where the Angells permanently lived in one of three homes they had in the L.A. area, were especially saddened by the loss, considering how much time, money and resources the wealthy but discrete power couple had contributed, especially to organizations working with impoverished and neglected children, here and around L.A. County with their Angell Foundation.

And perhaps few others felt that loss more acutely than John Hitchcock, at the time the executive director of Hillsides home for abused and emotionally disturbed children.

Hitchcock told The New York Times that Lynn Angell first described herself to him as a “retired librarian” willing to do the volunteer library work he had advertised. 

“She seemed awfully young to be retired,” Hitchcock told The Times. 

“That was more than a decade ago,” the story continued, and Hitchcock soon learned that Lynn Angell, “a soft-spoken native of Birmingham, Ala., was married to David Angell, a rising star in Hollywood’s community of television writers and producers.” 

“He also quickly discovered that Mrs. Angell had the dynamism and financial resources — she gave the money anonymously — to play a major role in transforming a small collection of books in the corner of the auditorium into a much larger library with its own building,” the story states,

“She quietly did things like paying for golf lessons for a child who expressed an interest to her,” Hitchcock said.

“She knew all 66 kids by name. She sent each one a postcard from Cape Cod this summer,” he said.

In a letter issued by Hillsides on Sept. 14, 2001, Hitchcock and others fondly remembered Lynn and David, one person saying the couple decided to live in Pasadena so they could be closer to Hillsides.

“David and Lynn were the most genteel people I ever met. I was always impressed with the love, respect and support they gave one another, even in the smallest things,” said Nancy Garni, at the time Hillsides’ director of development, She shared that Lynn and David donated towards the educational funds of several residents at Hillsides. 

David Angell grew up in a Roman Catholic family in Providence, Rhode Island, attending Catholic church services and schools. His brother Kenneth was the Bishop of Burlington, Vermont.

Hitchcock remembered Lynn as “an optimist, energetic person who always had a smile and was always interested in the kids. I loved seeing her because it felt good to be around Lynn.

“I was also so impressed with not only the relationship David and Lynn had with each other but how unassuming and humble they were, so down to earth and willing to give credit to others at the expense of recognition to themselves,” Hitchcock said.

It seemed everyone who worked with Lynn at Hillsides was extremely impressed with how well she knew each child. She not only knew their names but also something about the children that made each one special.

“Lynn sent each child of Hillsides a postcard with handwritten, individual messages. This was Lynn’s way of staying closer to the children while she vacationed in Cape Cod,” said Betsy Hamlin, Hillsides’ book repair volunteer and close friend of Lynn.

“When we passed out the postcards, some children new to Hillsides would say ‘But she doesn’t know me.’ The children sat down to compare notes and were so excited because their postcards were just for them and about them,” Hamlin said.

“They were both kind people with gentle spirits, religiously attending events and activities at Hillsides no matter how busy they were,” Garni said.

Originally published 2021