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127^th Commencement Exercise at WSC

(WORCESTER May 18, 2003) Ms. Jackie Pflug served as the featured speaker at Worcester State College’s 127^th Commencement on Sunday, May 18, 2003.  The Commencement ceremonies were held for the first time at the Worcester Centrum Centre due to construction on campus of the new residence hall.  The College conferred degrees on 870 students with 209 receiving master’s degrees and 580 receiving bachelor’s degrees. 

In a special investiture ceremony, Board of Higher Education Chancellor Judith I. Gill administered the oath of office to the College’s tenth president, Dr. Janelle C. Ashley. She accepted the Presidential Medallion and Mace of office from her predecessor, President Emeritus Dr. Kalyan K. Ghosh.

The Commencement speaker, Jackie Pflug, was an American special education teacher at Cairo American School in Cairo, Egypt, when in 1985 her life took an unexpected turn. Her flight, Egypt Air 648, was hijacked by terrorists and forced to land on the island of Malta.  The terrorists demanded fuel and safe passage to Libya, but the Maltese government refused to negotiate.  The terrorists began executing one passenger every fifteen minutes until their demands were met.  Like the four passengers before her, Ms. Pflug was shot at point blank range and thrown from the plane onto the tarmac.  For five hours, she drifted in and out of consciousness until the airport grounds crew retrieved her body and discovered she was alive. As a result of her head injury, Ms. Pflug sees only parts of words and corners of people’s faces. She continues to struggle with her disability but has focused her life on helping people create and sustain meaningful vision for their lives through her speaking engagements nationwide.  Senior officers of the graduating class of 2003 selected Jackie Pflug because her story has such relevance to today’s war against terrorism, and her victory over terrorism will serve as an inspiration to the graduates.

In addition, Nathaniel Mencow of Worcester was awarded the College’s Community Service Award. Mr. Mencow, WSC Class of 1988 and a master’s candidate who will be 85 in April, is known nationally as a war hero, the result of his service with the Eighth Air Force during World War II. He served a navigator in the 390th Bomb Group, and led 25 missions over Europe in 1943 and 1944, including the three most important missions mounted by that group during the war. For hiis service, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and shared in the honor of two Presidential Unit Citations. His exploits in his B-17 aircraft -- Betty Boop: The Pistol Packin’ Mama -- were documented in a 1991 film that continues to be shown at colleges and universities nationwide, including the Air Force Academy in Colorado. After he retired from the Air Force, and after he had a successful career as a businessman, Mr. Mencow embarked on an ambitious project to create the World War II Museum at the Sullivan Middle School, where he now serves as its coordinator and curator. Today, the Museum is visited by hundreds of people each year and is open to school groups who wish to learn about World War II. He shares his knowledge freely by lecturing at the Museum and coordinating yearly programs for Veteran and Memorial Days for the Worcester School Department.

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