Friends and family filled Hendricks Chapel with laughter and tears as they remembered Andrew McClune on Tuesday.

McClune, the Lockerbie Scholar who died outside Sadler Residence Hall on Dec. 13, was remembered through songs, poetry and speeches. Those who spoke included Chancellor Kenneth A. Shaw, professors Lawrence Mason, Jr., and Sam Gorovitz, those who knew McClune from his youth before he came to Syracuse University, fellow Lockerbie Scholar Ruth McNay, rector of Lockerbie Academy Graham Herbert and McClune’s grandfather Eric Kenwright.

Kenwright traveled from Lockerbie with McClune’s mother and stepfather, Deborah and Sandy Scott; brothers Iain, Alexander and Christopher; and McClune’s best friend from home.

Kenwright read from the first section in McClune’s journal about being in the United States and learning about American comedy by watching “Wayne’s World” in the quad. He read where McClune wrote about how he was enjoying his classes and the people he was meeting.

Kenwright said he did not expect to be in Hendricks on Tuesday but rather be there in the spring when he and his wife were going to visit McClune while on vacation in the United States. He spoke of his grandson as someone his family respected and loved, someone who was bright but more importantly able to apply this brightness to the real world.

“Whatever Andrew did, he did it to the best of his ability,” he said.

Kenwright said McClune gained his love of flying and airplanes at a young age, and whenever he heard a plane flying overhead, he would grab his binoculars and look for the number on the plane. He said it must have been a great pleasure for McClune to be involved with the Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corp at SU because of his love of planes.

He added that in his death McClune will always have a connection to SU and those students who died on Pan Am Flight 103.

“He is buried right next to his father, which is immediately adjacent to the memorial where so many SU students are honored,” he said.

Many of those who spoke said the connection between Lockerbie and SU was strengthened by the loss of McClune.

Shaw compared McClune in character to the SU students who died on the flight. McClune was bright, a risk taker and a person who loved traveling, like the students who died on the flight, he said.

Gorovitz said Lockerbie and Syracuse were thrust together in 1988 when the plane crashed as strangers trying to deal with a tragedy.

“This time we face a tragedy not as strangers but as friends,” he said.

One of McClune’s friends from the time he was 5 years old, who accompanied him to the United States, was fellow Lockerbie Scholar Ruth McNay. McNay said McClune had the ability to make you smile and laugh at any time.

“Andy showed you what you would be missing if you let the bad things get you down,” she said.

McNay said McClune was having so much fun at SU that he said he would be happy spending all four years of his university experience here.

Herbert gave a speech in June 1996 that may have planted the idea of being a Lockerbie scholar into McClune’s head. Herbert told the incoming students, McClune among them, of the opportunities that awaited them as they entered the academy, which included the scholarship to SU.

McClune was one of the finest students Herbert taught in his years as a teacher, he said. He was a well-rounded student who was active in many school activities and sports at home in Lockerbie.

“It was not a real surprise that Andrew was chosen as a Lockerbie scholar,” he said. “No one was jealous of his success because they knew that he earned it.”

The service began and ended with bagpipe music and a presentation of the American, Scottish and SU flags. Included in the service were the songs “Make me a Channel of Your Peace” and “Caledonia,” a traditional Scottish song. The version played at the memorial was recorded by McNay and some of her classmates in Lockerbie last spring.

McClune’s freshman forum class spoke, reciting a letter they addressed to McClune about the beginning of their second semester and their memories of the first, at the memorial as well. The group presented McClune’s family with a star they bought for McClune and a football signed by the SU football team.

Nick Cavanaugh, a freshman in The College of Arts and Sciences and a member of McClune’s freshman forum, said sometimes the group would try to think of ways that McClune could stay all four years on a full scholarship for curling.

Cavanaugh said he thought the memorial had the right focus on McClune’s life.

“It makes me really happy to see all the wonderful things about him shared,” he said.

Published on February 18, 2003 at 12:00 pm