On Dec. 21, 1988, Gwen Baxter, a doctor, was in her Main Street home in Lockerbie, Scotland, when a roar shook the house. Through the kitchen window, she and her family witnessed a fireball.

A terrorist bomb had caused Pan Am Flight 103 to explode over the small Scottish town. Debris struck the house’s thick Victorian sandstone walls, and a boulder of earth landed in the back garden. Gwen went over the back fence to help, getting neighbors out of wrecked homes.

Her grandson, James Johnson, was not aware of the full extent of his grandmother’s involvement that night until a couple of weeks before he left for Syracuse University in October 2025 as part of its first cohort of Lockerbie Fellows.

A Trustee of Tundergarth Kirks Trust

A first-year student at the University of Strathclyde studying law, politics and international relations, Johnson is carrying that story forward. He has been named a trustee of the , which owns and preserves three Pan Am 103 memorial sites in Lockerbie.

The invitation arrived while he rode the London Underground to a meeting for his work with the mental health charity Anna Freud. TKT Trustee Dianne Thomson told him the board had agreed unanimously, then urged him to think it over. Hours later, after his mother called it a great idea, Johnson texted back: yes.

“I was quite surprised, actually,” he says. “I was not expecting it at all.”

Carrying the Legacy Forward

Johnson, who grew up in Lockerbie and now lives in nearby Lochmaben, knew some of the details from his family of what had taken place. But when he applied to be a Lockerbie Fellow, he only briefly mentioned his family connections to the bombing in his application, so that he could focus on his own qualities.

“I wanted to have the honor to help carry on the legacy of all those who were involved in that night,” he says, “and carry on the memory of everyone who was lost in 1988.”

In Syracuse, as one of 10 fellows in the inaugural cohort, he felt the weight of that memory. During the annual Rose-Laying Ceremony, as Lockerbie Fellow Grace Key read the names of the 11 Lockerbie residents killed on the ground, each fellow laid a rose in their memory. Roses were then laid for the Syracuse student victims, the Pan Am Flight 103 crew and the Pan Am Flight 103 passengers.

“It makes you realize how big of a gap these people have left physically and emotionally,” Johnson says. He kept thinking of how many of the 270 victims were younger than he is now, and that they never got to finish university, have careers or start families.

Waiting at the airport in Newark for the flight home, he proposed a “Sitting in Solidarity” event in Lockerbie, mirroring what is done on the Syracuse campus during Remembrance Week. Lockerbie Academy Deputy Head Teacher Kerry Currie loved the idea, and the fellows carried it out last year on Dec. 19. At the Dec. 21 anniversary service at Tundergarth, TKT trust chair Lori Carnochan said that Johnson “spoke so eloquently of his time in Syracuse.” Johnson, in his speech commemorating the 37^th anniversary of the tragedy, said that the renewal of the Lockerbie-Syracuse connection further illustrated the spirit of Lockerbie.

“As a town, and community, our motto is ‘Forward Lockerbie,’” he said. “The 10 of us participating in not just looking back but also acting forward has embodied our vision of Lockerbie as fellows.”

Closer to home, Johnson has helped teach. Invited into a history class of 13-year-olds at Lockerbie Academy, he shared his grandmother’s story and his time in Syracuse. Students who wouldn’t always engage in classes listened closely, and many shared their own family connections. “It was nice to see a different side of them and how respectful they were about it,” he says.

He has also been involved in visits to Lockerbie by Syracuse students studying at the University’s London abroad center. “James epitomizes the lasting legacy of the disaster on the young people of Lockerbie,” says Stewart Clegg, assistant director for student well-being at Syracuse University London. “He has spoken to our students about the responsibility to remember those that were lost and also to share stories about the incredible humanity shown by the community in the aftermath.”

His supporters see Johnson’s promise as a keeper of the Pan Am 103 legacy. Dumfriesshire Member of Parliament David Mundell calls his trustee role “another tangible example” of how the Lockerbie-Syracuse connection benefits the community. “The fellowship program not only gives Lockerbie students a greater insight into events of December 1988 and its impact on their community and Syracuse, but also broadens their horizons and builds their confidence allowing them to become more engaged citizens, as James has demonstrated so well,” Mundell says.

Currie says Johnson brings “a valuable young, community-focused perspective” to the trust’s plans for an educational space at the site.

Johnson intends to keep going. “It’ll always be a part of my life,” he says.

The second cohort of Lockerbie Fellows will arrive in Syracuse on Oct. 17 to participate in the University’s .

Thirty-eight years after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, the 2026-27 Remembrance Scholars and Lockerbie Fellows will lead Syracuse University’s annual Remembrance Week, Oct. 18-24.

Remembrance Week activities are planned to look back on the impact of the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. The bombing claimed the lives of 270 people, including 35 students returning from a semester of study abroad in London and Florence through the University’s Division of International Programs Abroad (now Syracuse Abroad) and 11 Lockerbie residents.

The week will also highlight how students are acting forward. During their scholarship year, this year’s Remembrance Scholars are engaged in a broad range of “Act Forward” projects on Remembrance education, community healing through the arts, a participatory awareness art campaign, remembering through recipes, a Remembrance and global citizenship and walking tour, intercultural dialogue and aviation safety.

The Remembrance Scholars will be joined by the 2026-27 Lockerbie Fellows on the Syracuse campus for the week. The fellows are 10 students from Lockerbie Academy chosen through a competitive process. During their time in Syracuse, the Lockerbie Fellows, accompanied by Lockerbie Academy Deputy Head Teachers Catherine Carrick and Kerry Currie (a 1996-97 Lockerbie Scholar), will represent the 11 Lockerbie residents who died in the bombing and 2002-03 Lockerbie Scholar Andrew McClune, who died during his scholarship year in Syracuse.

This year’s Lockerbie Fellows are Max Atkinson, Carly Black, Anna Byers, Megan Curry, Falon Oliphant, Amy Oliver, Imogen Reid, Emma Sloan, Joshua Thompson and Lewis White.

Remembrance Week will be held Sunday, Oct. 18, through Saturday, Oct. 24. All activities are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. For more information, visit .

Those who require accommodations to fully participate in these events should contact Tamara Hamilton at��315.443.4282 or��tnhami01@syr.edu. The week’s schedule is as follows:

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• Empty Seats Display, Kenneth A. Shaw Quadrangle:��The Empty Seats Display is a visual representation of the Syracuse University students lost aboard Pan Am Flight 103. The exhibition is meant to serve as a reminder of how a loss in the past can inspire positive actions in the present. This year’s Remembrance Scholars and Lockerbie Fellows will sit in solidarity in the chairs for 35 minutes on Wednesday, Oct. 21, beginning at 2 p.m.
• Pen-and-ink drawings of the Syracuse University study abroad student victims will be on display in Hendricks Chapel.
• Blue and white flags, one for each of the 270 Pan Am 103 victims, will be on display in the area between the Newhouse School of Public Communications and Schine Student Center. Also, the Hall of Languages, Hendricks Chapel and the JMA Wireless Dome will be lit in blue in honor of Remembrance Week.
• The Remembrance Quilt will be on display in Hendricks Chapel. The quilt was created by the 1998-99 Remembrance Scholars, members of the Hendricks Chapel Quilters and many other contributors to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the bombing. The stories of the SU student victims are told through the design of each quilt block.
• Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives temporary exhibition, Bird Library, first floor display case near Starbucks café: A temporary exhibition of materials from the Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives’ collections pertaining to the sculptural work��“Dark Elegy”�� by Suse Lowenstein will be on display throughout the week. Lowenstein lost her eldest son, Syracuse University student Alexander Lowenstein, in the bombing.

Sunday, Oct. 18

• Candlelight Vigil, Hendricks Chapel steps, 5 p.m.: The Remembrance Scholars will remember the 270 victims of Pan Am 103. American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation will be available. The event will be .

Tuesday, Oct. 20

• A Remembrance Week Reception will be held from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Syracuse University Washington D.C. Center. Contact Cameron MacPherson at camacphe@syr.edu for more information or to register.

Wednesday, Oct. 21

• “Sitting in Solidarity,” Kenneth A. Shaw Quadrangle, 2 p.m.: The Remembrance and Lockerbie Fellows will sit in the empty chairs on the Quad for 35 minutes.
• Film Screening, 107 Hall of Languages, 6:30-8 p.m.: The first installment of the Netflix drama series “The Bombing of Pan Am 103” will be presented.

Thursday, Oct. 22

• Act Forward Symposium, lobby of Heroy Geology Laboratory, 6-7 p.m.: The Remembrance Scholars will present posters that share their plans to “act forward” through outreach, research, education and creative projects designed to benefit the community.
• Lockerbie Fellows Presentation, Heroy Geology Laboratory, 001 Auditorium, 7-8 p.m.: The Lockerbie Fellows will speak on their personal experiences and offer reflections.

Friday, Oct. 23

• Rose-Laying Ceremony, Place of Remembrance, 2:03 p.m.: American Sign Language interpretation will be available for this event. The Rose-Laying Ceremony and Remembrance Convocation will be .
• Remembrance Scholar Convocation, Hendricks Chapel, 3 p.m.: ​This annual convocation will honor the 2026-27 Remembrance Scholars. ASL interpretation and CART will be available. A reception in the Allyn Innovation Center, located on the first floor of Link Hall, will immediately follow.

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