Karen Lynn Seymour-Dietrich

Confectioner Extraordinaire
Karen Lynn Seymour's idea of a proper ending to a dinner party was a hand-made candy tower with brown-and-white chocolate walls filled with chocolate mousse and garnished with strawberry and blueberry coulis. Not long ago, she completed a 600- hour course at the French Culinary Institute, graduating first in her class. And she did it while working full time as a technology specialist at Garban Intercapital in the World Trade Center. "She got home at 1:30," said William Dietrich, her husband. "And got up at 5:30."

Ms. Seymour, he said, took her passions seriously. She met Mr. Dietrich, her future husband, a bicycle racer, while pedaling in Millington, N.J. She started racing with him and wound up as New Jersey's fifth-ranked woman cyclist. When she and Mr. Dietrich rode a tandem cycle, she steered.

Three and a half years ago, she had twins. She had a lot of plans for them, said Mr. Dietrich. "She wanted to take them bicycling and skiing and on trips to Europe, he said. "She couldn't wait," he said.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 22, 2001.


Karen Seymour, 40, dedicated worker Karen Lynn Seymour of Millington is being memorialized in a manner that promotes world peace, in the hope terrorism will not again encroach on the lives of her twins or children anywhere.

The Karen L. Seymour Fund at Liberty Science Center in Jersey City will "encourage greater global harmony by educating children and families of all backgrounds in the peaceful use of science and technology in the hope that future generations will be spared the pain and horror of this tragedy."

William Dietrich, her husband, added he doesn't want the twins, William or Sarah, or any children to grow up to experience or witness the violence that claimed the life of Ms. Seymour on Sept. 11.

A Wall Street technology specialist, Ms. Seymour was attending a financial technology seminar on the 106th floor of One World Trade Center that morning. She was employed by the ETC division of Garban Intercapital, and regularly worked on the 25th floor of the building.

Ms. Seymour, 40, was known for her energy and dedication at work. "Whenever we were discussing something that needed to be done, the staff always joked that they knew I would want Karen to handle it because I loved the way she worked," said Chris Ferreri, an executive at ETC.

Outside the office, Ms. Seymour had varied interests that included cooking and bicycling.

She attended the French Culinary Institute in New York, graduating first in her class, said her husband. She went on to work at La Grenouille in New York and the Stage House Inn in Scotch Plains. A culinary career, however, was shelved with the birth of the twins in 1997.

Ms. Seymour also was a member of the Navigators Professional Cycling Team, based in Hackettstown, in the early 1990s, and remained a recreational biker after retiring from competition.

Asked to recall poignant memories of their family life, Dietrich said, "Every day stood out. We enjoyed activities with the twins. We had planned to start skiing this winter. Of course, the majority of things were still to come."

Ms. Seymour earned her bachelor's degree in business information systems at the University of Baltimore in 1981, and completed a master's in business administration in finance at Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1992. Her career included work in the design and management of trading-floor systems at Salomon Brothers and Deutsche Bank.

More recently she was involved in the development of online bond trading platforms, first at BrokerTec LLC and then at ETC.

In addition to her husband and their children, Ms. Seymour is survived by her father, David Seymour of Littlestown, Pa., her mother, Catherine Seymour, and sister, Debra Anderson, both of Sykesville, Md., and her brother, Glen Seymour of Abingdon, Md.

The family requested that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the memorial fund.