Hopkins native Aaron Brown, who died Sunday at the age of 76, will best be remembered as CNN’s breaking-news anchor in the early 2000s.
I also knew him as my 9/11 soulmate.
On that fateful day in 2001, I was hunting to find a way to contribute to the newsroom’s coverage when a colleague mentioned that Brown, who had just been hired by CNN, was from Minnesota.
I was familiar with the broadcaster from his previous work on ABC’s “World News Now,” catnip for fellow newshounds with insomnia. But I had no idea he was one of us.
Brown hadn’t officially started his new duties when the World Trade Center was attacked, but he quickly jumped into action, speeding 30 blocks and running red lights to get to the New York studio.
Once there, he started to unbutton his shirt in the elevator, ran into his office, dumped his beeper and phone and rushed into the studio to change. The time it took to get from the front door to being on the air: seven minutes.
For the next 10 hours, he led the award-winning coverage, mostly from a rooftop near Ground Zero,
Considering the hectic schedule — and the fact that we didn’t know each other — I was shocked when he agreed to do a phone interview just 15 minutes after he had signed off.