UNIVERSITY TO REMEMBER FLIGHT VICTIMS

When TWA Flight 800 exploded, killing 230 people, Southeast Missouri State University graduate Joe Lychner's wife and two daughters were among the casualties.

The university and his Sigma Chi fraternity brothers will remember the family with a wreath-laying ceremony Sunday. The ceremony will be at 2:30 p.m. outside the Wehking Alumni Center on Sprigg Street.

The tragedy shocked Cape Girardeau orthodontist, Dr. David Feuerhahn, and Jackson lawyer Mike Jackson, two of Lychner's fraternity brothers.

Lychner, who grew up in St. Louis and now lives in Houston, Texas, graduated from Southeast in 1980 with a bachelor's degree in marketing. Jackson graduated in 1981 and Feuerhahn in 1982.

Jackson said, "It is just a real tragedy."

Jackson will speak at Sunday's ceremony, along with Southeast's president, Dr. Dale Nitzschke. Feuerhahn also plans to attend.

"I guess I was overwhelmed, shocked," recalled Feuerhahn of hearing about the deaths of Lychner's wife and daughters. "I was hoping it wasn't true."

Feuerhahn and his wife were scheduled to take the same TWA evening flight to Paris in September for an orthodontists' meeting. "That even worried me that much more," he said.

Feuerhahn still plans to take the flight, but his wife may stay at home.

The explosion may have been caused by a bomb. Feuerhahn views it as an isolated incident. "I just don't want something to control my life like that," he said of his decision to take the September trip.

Lychner's 37-year-old wife, Pamela, and daughters -- Shannon, 10, and Katie, 8 -- were killed when the Paris-bound jumbo jet exploded July 17 shortly after leaving New York's Kennedy Airport. Their bodies are among the 174 that have been positively identified as of Wednesday night.

The family was on a week's vacation. Lychner, a computer software executive, had just changed jobs and couldn't join them.

Pamela Lychner was a TWA flight attendant for seven years. She quit her job in 1986 to raise a family.

She founded Justice for All, an organization for crime victims' rights, after being the victim of an attempted rape in Houston in 1990.

Feuerhahn and Jackson met the family on the fraternity's summer float trip a few years ago. Both men described Lychner as a likable individual.

"He was everybody's friend," said Jackson.

As a student, Lychner was a hard worker, recalled Feuerhahn. "He was very involved. I think a lot of people looked to Joe for answers to problems," Feuerhahn said.

Since the tragedy, Lychner has become the unofficial spokesperson for the grieving families.

"That doesn't surprise me," Feuerhahn said. "He was not a selfish person; he looked out for a lot of people."

Only days before the doomed flight, he attended an event in St. Louis to raise money for medical expenses for a Sigma Chi fraternity brother's ill child.