Flight 93

United Flight 93 took off from Newark, N.J., headed to San Francisco and crashed in western Pennsylvania.

Mark K. Bingham

Mark K. Bingham, 31, was a 6-foot-5 rugby player, founder of a successful public relations firm and world traveler who ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, this summer.

He had recently moved to New York from San Francisco and was returning to the Bay Area on Flight 93 to visit family. He called his aunt and mother, United Airlines flight attendant Alice Hoglan, from the hijacked plane, saying things didn’t look good and that he loved them all.

His relatives believe Bingham played a role in thwarting the hijackers. “We think he helped cause it to crash in the woods instead of the White House or somewhere else,” his uncle Linden Hoagland said.

A UC Berkeley graduate who grew up in Los Gatos south of San Jose, Bingham started his own technology public relations firm, the Bingham Group, which had offices in San Francisco and New York.

Last year, he helped recruit and train members of San Francisco’s first gay rugby team. “He was upbeat, inspiring, a great guy,” teammate Bryce Eberhart said.

He is survived by his mother, aunt, three uncles, his maternal grandparents and cousins.

Richard Guadagno

A biologist managing the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Northern California, Richard Guadagno had been visiting his parents in New Jersey and sister in Vermont before heading home to Cutten, Calif.

Guadagno, 38, worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Dave Paullin, his supervisor, said Guadagno had a model career in his 17 years with the service, including work at refuges in Delaware and Oregon.

“He was a sincere and dedicated employee highly regarded by all that knew him,” Paullin said.

Guadagno was single, but had recently become engaged. He is survived by his parents, Jerry and Beatrice, of Ewing, N.J., and sister Lori, of Vermont.

Lauren Grandcolas

Lauren Grandcolas, 36, called her husband, Jack, from her West Coast-bound flight. When he did not answer, said sister-in-law Susie Bauer, she left a message saying there was trouble on the plane but that she was comfortable. “She said she loved him and loved her family very much,” Bauer recounted.

Grandcolas, who worked as a sales representative for Good Housekeeping magazine in San Francisco, met her husband while attending the University of Texas.

The couple lived in the Bay Area for 15 years, most recently in San Rafael in Marin County.

Alan A. Beaven

Alan A. Beaven, a father of three and San Francisco attorney originally from New Zealand, was about to take a year’s sabbatical from his law practice to volunteer as the general counsel with Siddha Yoga Meditation in India.

Beaven, 48, had been at the meditation foundation’s U.S. headquarters in South Fallsburg, N.Y., and was returning to San Francisco for a settlement conference in a case.

An Emeryville resident, Beaven specialized in environmental law, representing plaintiffs in pollution lawsuits. He had previously practiced in London, where he was a criminal defense barrister and a Scotland Yard prosecutor, said his longtime law partner, Joseph Tabacco. Beaven was a partner at the firm of Berman, DeValerio, Pease, Tabacco, Burt & Purcillo.

“He certainly was one of the bright stars of the environmental bar,” Tabacco said. “He was an excellent trial lawyer who also was very devoted to his family. He was able to find that balance.”

Beaven’s wife, Kimi, and their 5-year-old daughter, Sonali, remained in South Fallsburg while he boarded United Flight 93 in Newark. Beaven also is survived by two college-age sons, John and Chris, from a previous marriage.

Todd Beamer

Todd Beamer of Cranbury, N.J., was an account manager for Oracle Corp. and the father of two young children. Beamer, who had attended high school in Los Gatos, was traveling to the Bay Area on business.

“He was a devoted father and husband. He was very involved in his church,” sister Michele Beamer said amid tears. “He was a person any sister or parent or friend would be proud to know. I know I was very proud of him. He was a man of great integrity. He was very caring and kind.”

Beamer, 32, is survived by his wife, Lisa; sons David, 3, and Andre, 1; sisters Melissa Wilson of Michigan and Michele Beamer of New Jersey; and parents from Potomac, Md.

Thomas E. Burnett Jr.

Thomas E. Burnett Jr., 38, an executive of a company that makes medical devices for people suffering from heart failure, was returning home after visiting a company subsidiary in New Jersey. He had originally scheduled a later flight but flew home earlier to be with his family.

The San Ramon resident was senior vice president and chief operating officer of Pleasanton-based Thoratec Corp. and was the father of three girls--a 3-year-old toddler and 5-year-old twins.

Thoratec President D. Keith Grossman said that Burnett was “an exceptionally bright man” with a love of competition, a keen wit and a “very strong sense of right and wrong.”

He was an avid reader of history and had busts of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in his office.

Burnett, who frequently traveled for work, called his wife, Deena Burnett, on his cell phone four times during his final flight. He told her of the hijacking and that he other passengers were going to attempt to stop it.

“He didn’t review his life story or say goodbye or tell me wonderful things,” said Deena Burnett, who met her husband while she was working as a Delta Air Lines flight attendant. “He was assessing the problem and trying to solve it. He was coming home, you see.”

Deora Bodley

Deora Bodley, a Santa Clara University junior majoring in psychology and French, tutored children and spent the summer as a teacher’s aide for second graders at St. Clare Catholic Elementary in Santa Clara, said principal Kathy Almazol.

“Deora always treated the kids respectfully, like she did her friends, and they responded to that,” Almazol said. “She was a good role model and a lot of fun.”

Bodley, who prided herself on physical fitness and often wore her curly brown hair in a ponytail, “had boundless energy,” Almazol said. “She just captured the heart of our students.”

Bodley, 20, graduated from La Jolla Country Day High School in San Diego, where she was a member of the track team and volunteered with several organizations, including the Special Olympics and an AIDS service group, according to the university.

She is survived by her father, Darril Bodley of Stockton; and her mother, Deborah Guerra, of San Diego.