David McCourt | Among 9/11 families, 71

David McCourt, 71, who lost his wife and 4-year-old daughter in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, died Thursday of metastatic melanoma, a funeral home in New London, Conn., announced Sunday.

Mr. McCourt's wife, Ruth, 45, and their daughter Juliana were aboard United Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles to meet a friend of Ruth McCourt's at Disneyland. Their plane struck the south tower of the World Trade Center. The friend was aboard the plane that hit the north tower.

In January 2002, Mr. McCourt said he had considered suicide. "Ruth and Juliana were my life and my passion," he told an audience at a New London synagogue. "I was going to end it all. If faith could justify taking these two beautiful creatures, I just didn't want to go on. But something kept me going.

"It's been a journey of spiritual awakening to go from where I was," he said. "If you don't have the spiritual awakening, you don't survive."

Mr. McCourt helped found B.R.A.V.E. Juliana, a program of HELP USA, to teach nonviolence and conflict resolution to children. He said his wife and daughter died because some countries teach their children to hate.

He is survived by his wife, Mary Bryant, whom he married in 2011; two sons and two daughters; nine grandchildren; and a sister. - AP