For the people trapped inside the South Tower, those instructions offered something desperately needed: a plan.
Welles became their guide.
Then, after bringing people down, he returned for others.
Every Floor Down Was a Chance to Live
There is something almost unbearable about considering what each return trip meant.
Every step downward moved Welles closer to survival.
Every time he reversed direction, he surrendered that progress.
He could not have known precisely how much time remained.
Nobody could.
But he could see the destruction.
He could smell the smoke.
He knew the building had been struck by an aircraft.
He knew people were badly injured.
His firefighter training would have made him more aware of the danger, not less.
Yet he went back.
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum says Welles guided survivors to the single viable stairway and repeatedly returned to assist injured people.
Boston College credits him with saving as many as 18 lives.
That number should be understood carefully.
In a disaster of this magnitude, reconstructing exactly who was saved by one individual is extraordinarily difficult. Different accounts have described the number in different ways.
But authoritative sources, including Boston College, use the formulation that he saved as many as 18 people.
Even if there were no number attached to his name, the survivor testimony would tell the essential story.
People walked out because the man in the red bandana showed them how.
The Tower Falls
At 9:59 a.m., 56 minutes after Flight 175 struck it, the South Tower collapsed.
Welles was still inside.
Boston College reports that after helping survivors, he joined rescue efforts involving firefighters trying to help people who remained trapped.
He never emerged from the building.
The young man who had repeatedly brought strangers closer to safety was unable to make one final trip for himself.
For his family, however, much of this story remained unknown.
They knew Welles was missing.
They knew where he had worked.
They knew what had happened to the South Tower.
But they did not yet know what he had done inside it.
There had been no camera crew following him.
No reporter recording his actions.
The people he saved did not even know his name.
To them, he was simply the stranger in the red bandana.
The Survivors Remembered
After September 11, survivors began telling their stories.
Accounts emerged of an unidentified man who had appeared on the 78th floor and helped guide people toward safety.
They remembered his confidence.
They remembered his instructions.
Most importantly, they remembered the red cloth over his face.
That small detail eventually connected their stories to the Crowther family.
In May 2002, The New York Times published accounts of survivors who described the mysterious rescuer wearing a red bandana.
Welles's mother, Alison Crowther, recognized something immediately.
Her son always carried one.
Could the unknown rescuer have been Welles?
The family began contacting survivors.
Photographs were shown.
The survivors recognized him.
The nameless man finally had a name.
Welles Remy Crowther.
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum records that survivors confirmed Welles was the man they remembered wearing the red bandana.
For the Crowther family, the discovery changed their understanding of their son's final hour.
They had lost him.
Nothing could change that.
But now they knew how he had spent his remaining time.
He had been helping strangers.
A Mother's Discovery
There is a profound difference between knowing that someone died and learning how they lived in the moments before their death.
For months, Welles's family had been left with uncertainty.
Then strangers began filling in the missing pieces.
Their son had not been helpless.
He had not spent his final moments frozen by fear.
He had taken action.
The firefighter training he began acquiring as a teenager had become essential.
The red bandana he had carried for years became the detail that allowed survivors to identify him.
And his instinct to help others became the reason some of those survivors were alive to tell the story.
For Alison and Jefferson Crowther, the red bandana could never again be an ordinary piece of fabric.
After September 11, they found additional red bandanas among Welles's belongings.
Eventually, the bandana became the symbol of a charitable trust established in his memory.
One of Welles's red bandanas is now part of the collection of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
Millions of people who never met him can understand what it represents.
Not invulnerability.
Not fearlessness.
A choice.
His Body Was Found Months Later
Welles's remains were recovered from the wreckage of the South Tower in March 2002.
He was 24 years old.
His remains were found in an area associated with the rescue effort, reinforcing what survivors had already described: he had remained in the building helping others rather than simply escaping.
For his family, confirmation brought grief but also greater clarity.
The young equities trader had died doing what the 16-year-old volunteer firefighter inside him had been trained to do.
Help.
Lead.
Return for others.
The Firefighter He Never Stopped Being
Welles had built a career in finance, but firefighting remained deeply important to him.
After his death, his family found evidence that he had been considering a professional future in firefighting.
It adds another layer to his story.
Wall Street may have been his job.
Service was part of his identity.
On September 11, there was no time to change careers.
There was no application process.
No interview.
No graduation from a professional fire academy.
There was simply an emergency.
And Welles responded.
In recognition of his actions, the New York City Fire Department later named him an honorary firefighter.
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum notes that the honor was unprecedented.
It was a title awarded after his death, but one his actions had already earned in the minds of countless people.
Boston College Keeps His Story Alive
Welles's legacy also became deeply woven into the culture of Boston College.
The university established traditions commemorating him, including the annual Red Bandanna 5K.
Athletes and students wear red bandanas.
His story is shared with new generations.
Boston College's annual Red Bandanna football tradition similarly celebrates Welles and the values associated with his actions.
For the 25th anniversary of September 11 in 2026, Boston College again chose its Red Bandanna Game to commemorate Welles and other alumni killed in the attacks.
The tradition matters because Welles's story could easily have disappeared.
He was one person among the nearly 3,000 victims of September 11.
He did not survive to describe what he did.
Most of the people he helped initially did not know who he was.
Without the survivors remembering that red bandana, his family might never have learned the full story.
Instead, the symbol endured.
As Many as 18 Lives
Boston College and other accounts credit Welles with saving as many as 18 people.
Numbers can sometimes make heroism easier to comprehend.
Eighteen lives.