Honors for local heroes as part of Al Filipov’s 9/11 legacy

The Acton sky was a clear blue this September 11, with temperatures mild enough for people to gather outside with friends before the ceremony began.

For Loretta Filipov, the beautiful morning brought back a 25-year-old memory.

On that date in 2001 — on another crisp, clear September morning — her husband, Al, left Acton for a business trip. 

He never came home.

This year, Loretta sat among friends at the Al Filipov Awards, an annual Rotary Club of Acton ceremony honoring local first responders in memory of her husband, who died aboard American Airlines Flight 11.

“I remember, whether it’s 10 years or 20 years,” she said. “I could tell you exactly what he was wearing.”

A fateful turn

Al and Loretta were supposed to go to Hawaii for their anniversary, but Al received a late request to travel for work. He initially told Loretta he would be gone for two days, and they would celebrate when he got back. 

The morning he left, one of her sons, who was working in a high-rise building in Boston, called her. Loretta was watching television as the attacks unfolded, but neither of them understood what had happened to Al’s flight. 

During their talk, something clicked. 

“Mom, when did Dad leave?” Loretta recalled her son asking. Her son told her the reports said it was Flight 11, and she confirmed it was his flight. Her son immediately got on the train home. 

Saluting first responders 

Twenty-five years later, Loretta watched from the audience at One Acton Farms on Virginia Road as the Rotary Club honored four first responders for their actions during emergencies in Acton and surrounding communities.

Acton Fire Chief Brian Whitney presented the Al Filipov Award to Assistant Fire Chief Sean Murphy for his response to a serious motorcycle crash in another town in July. 

Murphy was traveling back toward Acton when he came upon the crash and immediately shifted into emergency response mode. He assessed the patient and helped establish a treatment plan. Whitney said Murphy remained calm and professional throughout. 

Acton Police Capt. Brian Goldman presented the award to Officer Michael Crowe for his response to an attempted heist at Cambridge Savings Bank on Sudbury Road. Crowe, who graduated from the police academy in January, responded to a report of multiple masked individuals breaking into an ATM.

During the investigation, he spotted a vehicle linked to the incident and pursued a fleeing suspect. When the suspect failed to comply, Crowe arrested him following a brief struggle. 

Emergency Communications Manager Stephen James Johnson presented the award to dispatchers Erich Robichaud and Ella Ludwig for their work during a head-on crash on Walden Street. 

The crash involved multiple patients and required coordination among police, fire, emergency medical services, mutual aid and medical helicopters. Johnson said Robichaud and Ludwig remained calm while organizing information, dispatching resources, communicating with responders and managing other emergency activity throughout town.

Organizers also presented a bouquet of sunflowers to Loretta, who smiled as she talked with the first responders gathered around her at the ceremony’s end.

‘Acts above and beyond’

Al’s son David Filipov remembered his father as an adventurous and inventive man in a 2023 column for The Acton Bridge. He said his father was “an inventor, a math genius, a family man” — and someone who loved a challenge. 

David recalled his father mastering activities to share with his children, from baseball and skiing to tennis and ocean sailing. 

He also said it was fitting to see an award for first responders named for his father: Al Filipov instilled in his children the value of “acts that went above and beyond” to help others.

“This is what it’s about,” Loretta said. “Honoring these firefighters, policemen, dispatchers … Al would have loved this.”