Bob's Story
He walked down 39 floors. He's been walking toward purpose ever since.
9/11 Survivor. U.S. Marine Veteran. Author. Keynote Speaker.
“September 11 was not where this story started. Nor was it where it ended.”
When Bob Jenkins first sat down to write his memoir, he believed he was recording the story of September 11, 2001. That was understandable. After all, he had spent the morning of that terrible day on the thirty-ninth floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, where an ordinary business meeting became a fight for survival.
What neither he nor anyone fully understood at the beginning was that September 11 was not where this story started. As the pages slowly took shape, something unexpected happened. The memoir itself began asking a different question — not 'What happened on September 11?' but 'What kind of life prepares someone for the day the world changes?'
The Beginning
Steps No One Sees Coming
The staircase at the center of this story does not begin on the thirty-ninth floor of the North Tower. It begins years earlier — with a frightened left-handed boy struggling to fit into a Catholic school classroom.
It winds through a difficult childhood, military and boarding school, the demanding discipline of Marine Corps boot camp, the deserts of Twentynine Palms, friendships forged through hardship, lessons learned from remarkable leaders, mistakes honestly admitted, and countless moments that seemed ordinary when they occurred.
Only in hindsight do those moments reveal themselves for what they truly were. Steps. One after another. Preparing him for a climb he never imagined he would have to make.
September 11, 2001
Inside the North Tower
Bob Jenkins was on the thirty-ninth floor of the North Tower when the world changed. What followed was not the story of a hero. It was the story of an ordinary man who had been quietly prepared — by every experience that came before — for the most extraordinary morning of his life.
Marine Corps lessons echoed inside the stairwell. A father's harsh words resurfaced in unexpected places. Leadership, courage, humility, and perseverance — threads woven through his life long before he noticed the pattern — became the tools of survival.
He does not ask for admiration. He does not ask for sympathy. He simply tells the truth as he remembers it. Sometimes that truth is frightening. Sometimes it is heartbreaking. Quite often, it is surprisingly funny.
The Deeper Truth
A Story About Every Life
Most readers will never descend thirty-nine flights of stairs inside a burning skyscraper. But every reader has climbed another kind of staircase. We have all faced moments we never anticipated — illness, loss, failure, responsibility, the sudden realization that life has divided itself into before and after.
When those moments arrive, we discover something important. We do not suddenly become courageous. We become the people our lives have been quietly shaping all along.
Because every one of us carries experiences whose purpose is not immediately obvious. Taken individually, they seem disconnected. Viewed from the summit, they form a single path.
The Book
Stairway to Heaven
This is not a history of September 11. It is a first-hand memoir written by a man who lived that morning from inside the North Tower of the World Trade Center — and from inside a life that had been quietly preparing for that day long before anyone knew it was coming.
At first glance, it appears to describe one man's journey. By the final chapter, many readers will realize it is describing their own.
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop and look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
“There is an old observation among climbers that reaching the summit is never the whole achievement. The mountain changes you long before you arrive.
— Unknown
Perge, sed caute
Proceed with caution
Bring Bob's story to your audience.
Available for corporate events, military gatherings, leadership conferences, and memorial ceremonies.