Metro

As nation remembers 9/11, father ‘finds’ dead son at memorial

Rob Peraza

Rob Peraza (
)

Robert Peraza didn’t need a map to help him find his son’s name yesterday at the World Trade Center memorial.

He was just walking around the giant square where the north tower used to be — and there it was.

“I just began to walk, and I found it,” said Peraza, the subject of a viral, touching photograph that has quickly become the iconic portrait of grief on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

“It was, to me, very emotional to find the name. I knew it was in the north pool. It’s very moving.”

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Peraza’s son, Rob, 30, died after being trapped on the 104th floor of the north tower, just above where American Airlines Flight 11 tore a hole through the building.

He was a commodities trader at Cantor Fitzgerald and lived on the Upper West Side.

A crestfallen Peraza touched the bronze slate where his son’s name was etched, fell to a knee and lowered his head.

Peraza said his family has raised nearly $250,000 to start a scholarship in his son’s name for his alma mater, upstate St. Bonaventure University.

Although the photo of his grief was in wide circulation on the Internet even before the ceremony was over, the Florida resident said he had yet to see it.

“All I am doing here is to honor his memory,” Peraza said. “The issue isn’t about me.”