Indiana University of Pennsylvania will present a program September 11 at 8:30 a.m. to reflect on and mark the 17th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The program will be held next to the university's September 11 memorial in the Oak Grove, between Sutton Hall and Stapleton Library.
The memorial includes a 13-foot remnant of the World Trade Center, on long-term loan to the university from the Kovalchick family, of Indiana.
The event will include a remembrance of the three IUP alumni lost in the World Trade Center attacks: William Moskal, a 1979 graduate; Donald Jones, a 1980 graduate; and William Sugra, a 1993 graduate.
Both Jones and Sugra worked for Cantor Fitzgerald in the north tower of the World Trade Center. Jones was a bond broker from Bucks County. Sugra lived in Manhattan and worked for e-Speed, Cantor Fitzgerald's electronic trading unit.
Sugra's family, of Allentown, has established a memorial scholarship in his honor for an IUP student from Allentown majoring in finance.
Moskal, a safety sciences graduate and Johnstown native, was a risk consultant for Marsh and McLennan in Cleveland, specializing in heavy construction. He was in New York on September 11, 2001, for a meeting at the World Trade Center.
The Rev. Stephen Bouman, executive director of the Congregational and Synodical Mission, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, will serve as the keynote speaker for this year's event.
Theodore “Tedd” Cogar, associate director, IUP Student Conduct, LGBTQIA Support, will serve as master of ceremonies. Other speakers include Caleb King, an applied mathematics and economics major, a member of the Cook Honors College, and student member of the IUP Council of Trustees; and Michele Papakie, professor and chairperson of the IUP Journalism and Public Relations Department, LTC, 171st Air Refueling Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard.
The program will include performances by the IUP Wind Ensemble with a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane hit the World Trade Center.
In honor of first responders and other emergency personnel, there will be a fire truck in the Oak Grove during the ceremony.
During September, the IUP Libraries is offering a special exhibition about the attacks. The display, located in the first floor lobby, includes memorabilia from IUP alumni who participated in the cleanup of the World Trade Center site.
In the event of inclement weather, the ceremony will be held in Gorell Recital Hall.
Keynote speaker Rev. Bouman began his ministry in the church-wide organization when he was called to the position of executive director for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission unit in February 2008. He previously served as bishop of the ELCA Metropolitan New York Synod from September 1996 through January 2008. The Metropolitan New York Synod embraces the five boroughs of New York City, Long Island, and several counties north and west. It includes 236 member congregations, and worships in more than 20 languages.
Rev. Bouman is from Melrose Park, Illinois, and graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary/Seminex in 1973. He received his Master of Sacred Theology from New York Theological Seminary in 1978 and his Doctor of Ministry degree in 1980, an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in 2001, and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Wagner College in 2008.
He began his pastoral ministry in 1973 at St. Jacobus Lutheran Church, Woodside, Queens. He then pastored Atonement Lutheran Church, Jackson Heights, from 1974 until 1981; and Trinity Lutheran Church, Bogota, New Jersey from 1982 through 1992. He is founder of the Diakonia ministry education program, which trains lay people for ministry in local congregations. His parish ministry also included building strong multicultural outreach, the launching of two parochial schools, leadership in several church based community organizations, and a variety of ministries of assistance and advocacy among the poor.
Rev. Bouman served as assistant to the bishop from 1992 until his election as bishop in 1996. He also served as chair of the ELCA Board of Higher Education and Schools, and as a trustee for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and Wagner College in New York City. He currently serves on the board of Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries in Chicago.