Thirty-four years after the skywalk at the Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed, ground was broken last week for a Skywalk Memorial to be constructed at Hospital Hill Park, located at 22nd and Gillham, on the north grounds of Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.
During a tea dance on July 17, 1981, 114 people were killed and many others injured when the walkway at the Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}It remains the deadliest structural collapse in U.S. history other than the terrorists’ acts in New York City and Oklahoma City.
Three members of the Jewish community died in the collapse — Stephen Hershman, Robert Jonas and Paul William “Pete” Winett. Sol Koenigsberg and his wife, Rosette (who passed away last year), were among those injured the night of the accident.
“We were right under the skywalk when they collapsed,” Koenigsberg said. “I eventually recovered from serious injuries but Rosette never did and suffered from post-traumatic syndrome until she died.”
Koenigsberg, a former executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, is the adviser for the Skywalk Memorial Foundation committee. Three years ago he said he was certain that a memorial would eventually be built. It’s been 10 years since the fundraising began and Koenigsberg said construction should be completed sometime this fall.
“This task took patience and tenacity,” he said.
Koenigsberg said many who were approached for donations expressed disinterest.
“We are pleased that there was enough support by donors and in-kind contributions to allow the memorial to be built,” he said. The cost for the memorial and endowment will total about $600,000. SMF is about $25,000 shy of that goal right now. To make a donation, visit www.skywalkmemorial.org or send a check to the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation (GKCCF) at 1055 Broadway, Suite 130, Kansas City, MO 64105. Be sure to designate “Skywalk Memorial Foundation.”
The one-of-a-kind memorial honors the memory of those 114 who were killed along with the more than 200 people who were injured and the first responders who, Koenigsberg said, “came to rescue the hurt and to remove the bodies of those who lost their lives.”
“It has been a generation since the accident and many were and are not aware of that terrible night. We owe it to that generation and those that will follow to know about what happened and how the community came together that night and 34 years later built this memorial,” he said.
Koenigsberg said Skywalk Memorial Foundation founders Brent Wright and William Quatman, along with volunteer public relations woman Heather McMichael, “are particularly responsible for the success of this project due their commitment and tenacity.”
“The support of The Kansas City Star and of Crosby Kemper III of the Kansas City library were very helpful,” he continued.
At the groundbreaking, Wright surprised Koenigsberg by announcing that an anonymous couple, believed to be members of the Jewish community, contributed $25,000 in Koenigsberg’s honor.
“I am profoundly moved and grateful to them,” he said.
The memorial will feature a sculpture designed by Rita Blitt. The artist told The Chronicle in 2011 that her fifth-grade art teacher, Ruth Ann Angstead, was injured in the skywalk collapse.
“The fact that I can now pay tribute to her, the other victims and survivors, is deeply satisfying to me,” Blitt said.
Blitt donated her design for the memorial, and the A. Zahner Company is donating the fabrication.{/mprestriction}
