Syracuse University Friday afternoon remembered the 35 students from SU killed in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
A rose laying ceremony honoring those students was held at 2:03 p.m.– the exact time of the bombing on December 21, 1988.
With most students gone for the semester by late December now, the University has been holding Remembrance Week earlier in the semester.
One of the Remembrance Scholars this year has a unique connection to one of the students killed on Pan Am 103.
Steven Russell Berrell was returning home for Christmas after a semester studying in London.
Berrell was a double major at SU known as a loyal friend, sensitive, considerate, caring with a wonderful sense of humor and a warm smile.
Pan Am 103 Remembrance Scholar Katie Berrell, a Minnesota native, says, “I don’t think I understood how big this event is on campus until I really got here.”
But Katie Berrell is more than just a Remembrance Scholar, she’s also the niece of Steven Berrell.
“It was kind of strange growing up and having this relative who should be there and you kind of have to come to terms with what that means when you’re 10, 11 years old,” she tells NewsChannel 9.
While she never met her uncle, Katie says she grew up always knowing who he was.
“He was my dad’s little brother, my grandmother wears a pin of him every single day, we have pictures everywhere, he was just always a presence,” Berrell says.
She says being a Remembrance Scholar is about much more than just a week on campus for the SU Community.
“More often than not the people living right down the hill also experienced it. And I think its just as much of a loss for them as it was the campus,” she tells NewsChannel 9.
Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster archives are on exhibition through June 2019 in the sixth floor galleries at Bird Library.
