Sea Mountains Named for National Geographic Staffers Killed on 9/11

David Braun
National Geographic News

May 17, 2002

Two undersea mountains about 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) northwest
of Honolulu have been named for Ann Judge and Joe Ferguson, the
National Geographic Society staff members who perished on the aircraft
that was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon by terrorists on
September 11, 2001.

Scott Gudes, deputy undersecretary of the
U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), presented
a map of the Pacific showing the location of the seamounts named for
Ferguson and Judge to National Geographic Society President John Fahey,
and the Society's Executive Vice President, Terry Garcia, Mission
Programs, on May 14.

"This is a wonderful idea, and it's incredibly thoughtful of you," said Fahey. "This means a lot to us."

"It means a lot to us," said Gudes. "Ann and Joe were accompanying school students to a National Marine Sanctuary when they died. They were leaders in geography education, so it seemed appropriate that we name geographic features after them. For NOAA this is especially important as the features are in the oceans.

"We felt pretty emotional about what happened to Joe and Ann, as NOAA and the National Geographic Society are great partners, and they died while working for that partnership," Gudes said.

NOAA will give additional copies of the map to the Judge and Ferguson families.

The 6,000-foot (1,800-meter) Ferguson Seamount is located at 30° 15' N 171° 28' E. Its peak lies 12,007 feet (3,660 meters) below sea level.

Judge Seamount, 8,451 feet high (2,577 meters), is at 30° 35' N 171° 26' E. Its peak is 9,593 feet (2,924 meters) beneath the surface of the ocean.

Both seamounts are assumed to be volcanic.

The Advisory Committee on Undersea Features of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names agreed to the names.

Judge was director of the Society's travel office and Ferguson was director of the Geography Education Outreach Program.

They were accompanying three Washington, D.C., teachers and three students they were traveling with, when they were killed.

Teacher James Debeuneure and student Rodney Dickens were representing Ketcham Elementary School; teacher Sarah Clark and student Asia Cottom were from Backus Middle School; and teacher Hilda Taylor and student Bernard Brown were from Leckie Elementary School. All the students were 11-year-old sixth graders.

They had been selected to participate in a program at the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary near Santa Barbara, California, as part of a marine research project known as Sustainable Seas Expeditions, a five-year project of deepwater exploration and public education conducted by National Geographic and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The field work would have entailed working with biologists at the marine sanctuary to monitor oceanic life and activity. Hiking and kayaking to several of the study areas was part of the planned agenda.

The six teachers and students who were en route to California had been selected for the program by local coordinators of a Society-sponsored network of educators known as the National Geographic Alliance.

The National Geographic Society established a fund to honor and celebrate the lives of Joe Ferguson and Ann Judge and their tireless commitment to the Society's mission of education, exploration, research, and conservation.

Designated to support geography education, including continued opportunities for students and teachers to learn about and interact with the natural world, the Ferguson/Judge Fund has raised more than U.S. $200,000.

The public may still make donations to the fund. Gifts of all sizes are welcome and are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Please send a check, made out to the National Geographic Society, with a note indicating the Ferguson/Judge Fund to: National Geographic Society Development Office, 1145 17th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036.

To make a gift with a credit card online, please visit the NGS Development Office online.