For those affected by the Pan Am Flight 103 tragedy, Judy O’Rourke has always been there.

She’s a “surrogate mother” to Lockerbie scholars, a good listener, a generous spirit. She’s a keeper of the memories for the Pan Am Flight 103 victims. She’s a bridge between Syracuse University and the victims’ families.

O’Rourke, director of the Office of Undergraduate Studies in Academic Affairs, will receive an Order of the British Empire at a ceremony later this year, the university announced on Oct. 9. She is receiving the award for her 25 years of work strengthening ties between Lockerbie and Syracuse. The Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry recognizing service to the United Kingdom and its people.

Each year, O’Rourke is instrumental in coordinating Remembrance Week, which honors the lives of the 35 students who died when Pan Am Flight 103 went down over Lockerbie, Scotland as the result of a terrorist attack.

Friends and colleagues say O’Rourke is more than deserving of this honor and that she serves an important role in the SU community.

Having worked with O’Rourke for 10 years and witnessed her dedication, Eileen Fahey, O’Rourke’s assistant, said she was anything but surprised when O’Rourke received the honor.

“There was never a doubt in my mind that she would get it,” she said. “She has a clear vision and she’s totally committed to honoring the victims of Pan Am 103.”

As soon as Fergus Barrie, a Lockerbie Scholar in 2011-2012, landed in America, O’Rourke was there at the airport to welcome him and bring him to her home for dinner.

“She’s dealt with the scholars now for 24 years, and every year all the scholars say the same thing, where they all feel she’s great,” he said.

Callum Johnstone, a 2013-2014 Lockerbie Scholar, also met O’Rourke when she picked him up at the Syracuse airport. “She gave me a big hug and welcomed me to America,” he said in an email. When Johnstone’s family came to Syracuse to visit this week, O’Rourke “generously offered them a stay in her home too,” Johnstone said.

“Coping with many of us Scots is no easy task but she makes sure she does her best. Considering she has been doing this for over 20 years says something about her commitment to us ‘Lockerbies,’” he said, referring to the scholars.

But it isn’t just Lockerbie Scholars for whom O’Rourke goes above and beyond.

Eileen Monetti met O’Rourke shortly after losing her son Rick, a junior studying journalism at SU, to the Pan Am Flight 103 tragedy. Years later, O’Rourke was there for the Monetti family when their daughter had to leave SU during her sophomore year. As the Monettis struggled to transfer their daughter’s credits, O’Rourke went to her professor and found out how to remove an “incomplete” from her record.

“She’s always been so willing to put herself out there to do anything that the families have suggested,” said Monetti. “She really went out of her way for all the families.”

The Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, a group “committed to seeking the truth about this tragedy and keeping the memory of our loved ones alive,” according to their website, gave O’Rourke its “Keeping the Spirit Alive Award” a few years ago. But Monetti says she still wishes O’Rourke could be recognized more.

“I only wish that in the United States we had an award that we could give her,” she said. “Our organization’s given her an award, but I mean something that our U.S. government could do to recognize everything that she has done for victims of terrorism.”

Since the Pan Am tragedy, O’Rourke has supported those involved, whether they’re Remembrance Scholars, family members to the victim, Lockerbie natives or SU community members.

“What I hope I am able to do for SU students, the Lockerbie Scholars, and even the Pan Am families is to try to listen to their concerns, their goals, and their ideas and try to assist them to find ways to achieve them,” O’Rourke said in an email.

Remembrance Week changes year to year, O’Rourke said, based on input from Remembrance Scholars. Last year, for example, the scholars started a new tradition: placing 35 chairs on the quad, resembling the seats of the 35 victims on the flight. Written on the chairs are testimonials of what students have done to make the world a better place, from small acts of kindness to larger commitments.

“The whole idea is what are you doing to do good, to do better, and so that sort of embodies the whole idea of Remembrance Week: we remember and we act,” she said.

For Fahey, working with O’Rourke on Remembrance Week projects is inspiring.

O’Rourke deserved the award because of her unending passion. “She clearly, for decades, has given 110 percent to the Lockerbie Scholarship program,” Fahey said. “She really has a generous spirit.”

Jeannine Boulanger, the mother of Pan Am Flight 103 victim Nicole Boulanger, said she was “delighted” when she heard O’Rourke would be receiving an Order of the British Empire. She said that at the meeting of victims’ families during Remembrance Week, O’Rourke received a standing ovation.

“Everybody was just so excited that this was happening to her,” she said. “It is so well deserved.”

Boulanger praised O’Rourke’s skill as a communicator. She said O’Rourke is known as a good listener, someone who will answer an email immediately and an important link between the university and the families of victims.

Boulanger came to Syracuse for Remembrance Week this year for the first time in several years.

“I was in a place where it just made me feel sadder when we went to the university,” she said. But she was surprised, she said, that despite the fact no current Remembrance Scholars knew any of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103, the students involved in remembrance were truly moved by their research on the victims.

“Some of them were in tears,” she said. “It was really a heartfelt experience.”

O’Rourke’s work of sharing her experiences with the victims with current SU students is a crucial part of her work as a communicator, Boulanger said. She added that O’Rourke’s ability to instill current Remembrance Scholars with her personal knowledge of the victims is just short of miraculous.

“I think she was the angel that came to us,” Boulanger said. “We have had many gifts during the 25 years — gifts of friendship, gifts of communication, gifts of every possible kind — and I think Judy was by far one of those gifts. She truly got it.”

Published on October 17, 2013 at 2:33 am

Contact Maggie: mmcregan@syr.edu