Head of 9/11 Memorial Fund Resigns

Gretchen Dykstra resigned on Friday as chief executive officer of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, The New York Times reports. The nonprofit organization, which was established to raise money to construct and sustain a memorial for victims of the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, in New York, has faced mounting criticism for the $973-million price tag for the memorial site. There has also been confusion over how the organization would work with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the entity that initiated the planning and design of the memorial.

New York’s mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, had complained publicly that the organization was not concentrating on fund raising. He said Ms. Dykstra’s resignation was not going to solve the memorial’s problems, and that her leaving “just makes it more complex because we don’t have her,” reports The New York Times. Joseph C. Daniels, general counsel of the fund, will serve as acting president.