2016 Remembrance Week
Remembrance Week 2016 is scheduled for October 23-29 at Syracuse University. The week culminates with the Rose Laying and Convocation ceremonies on October 28 and the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103’s meeting on October 29.
To Thomas Britton Schultz
The video is a recording of 2015 Remembrance Scholar Cameron MacPherson (grandson of legendary Syracuse coach Dick MacPherson) reading a poem dedicated to Thomas Schultz during “A Celebration of Life,” a series of student performances during last year’s Remembrance Week. As an attendee that evening, I can personally attest to the power of this poem.
Joan Dater, 1942-2016
Athletic and ebullient, Gretchen Dater was an extraordinarily talented artist who could work with virtually any medium. Gretchen, a junior at the prestigious Maryland Institute College of Art, enrolled in Syracuse University’s Division of International Programs Abroad in the fall of 1988, joining several hundred fellow students at S.U.’s center in Notting Hill. While in…
Egypt Air Flight 804
Search crews have located wreckage from Egypt Air Flight 804; though the investigation is in its nascent phase, Egyptian officials believe that the aircraft’s destruction is likely due to terrorist activity. We hold the 66 victims and their loved ones in our thoughts.
Second Lockerbie Trial a Possibility
Though a second trial is far from a certainty, outgoing Scottish lord advocate Frank Mulholland expressed his hope that 2 additional Libyan suspects could be extradited eventually: “I hope that the Libyans will grant permission for that to be done. I obviously can’t say too much publicly but a lot of work is going on…
Congratulations 2016-17 Remembrance Scholars!
On January 19, 1989, over 10,000 family members, friends, and classmates gathered to mourn and remember the 35 students enrolled in Syracuse University’s Division of International Programs Abroad who were killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. In the closing moments of the service, Chancellor Melvin Eggers made the following promise: “Your sons…
Families React to MacAskill’s Book
This is a follow up to the ongoing story of Kenny MacAskill’s attempt to justify his decision to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the only man convicted of the bombing of Pan Am 103, in 2009. I discussed several reactions in a previous post; on Monday, The Scottish Daily Mail published an article detailing the…
Resources for Remembrance (and Other) Scholars.
Syracuse University’s Remembrance Scholarship program began in 1990 and fittingly, Remembrance Week, now generally celebrated in October, was the brainchild of the Remembrance Scholars themselves several years later. By the early 1990s, there were few students left on campus with direct ties to the 35 students lost in the bombing of Pan Am 103. Concerned…
Brussels
Alicia and I became close friends in the second half of my sophomore year. A theater major from Madrid, Alicia was brilliant, talented, worldly, and sophisticated. I felt more intelligent just for being around her and relished the hours we spent together lost in conversation in her room in Lourdes Hall. Our discussions covered everything…
FlyDubai FZ981
Our thoughts are for those lost aboard Flight FZ981 and for their families and friends.
Ken Dornstein’s Speech, Arlington National Cemetery. 21.12.2015
Though I was unable to make it to Arlington on the 27th anniversary last December, I can share portions of this speech courtesy of Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, which posted a number of speeches from last year’s memorial service on their Facebook site. The following excerpts are from Ken Dornstein’s presentation, the full…
Notting Hill, 1988
The map below, a larger version of the map on the London, 1988 page, shows the locations of students’ flats, local pubs, and other sites frequented by the Syracuse students in the fall of 1988.