Santa Monica remembers two local women who died on Sept. 11
By Daily Press staff
Two years ago today, thousands of people perished in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. Among them were two Santa Monicans.
Like most cities around the country, Santa Monica will hold special ceremonies and vigils today to remember those who died in the 2001 Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Candles will be lit to remember two local women who were as dedicated to their professions as they were to their families and to the Santa Monica community.
Santa Monica residents Dora Menchaca, 45, and Carolyn Beug, 48, were aboard airplanes that were hijacked and flown into the Pentagon and the north tower of the World Trade Center.
Menchaca was on American Airlines flight 77, which took off from Dulles International Airport in Virginia. Beug was aboard American Air-lines flight 11, that originated in Boston.
Menchaca wasn’t supposed to be on flight 77. She boarded the plane as a stand-by passenger so she could get back early to her Sunset Park home to be with her family — husband Earl Dorsey, then-teenaged daughter Imani Dorsey and son Jaryd Dorsey.
Menchaca was supposed to testify in Washington D.C. in front of the Federal Drug Administration about a new drug being re-leased by Thousand Oaks-based Amgen, Inc., where she worked in the clinical development department. But that meeting had been canceled.
Beug was flying home with her mother, Mary Wahlstrom, after a week of helping her twin daughters settle into their new college at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Beug, who lived north of Montana Avenue, is survived by her husband, John Beug, her daughters, Lauren and Lindsey Mayer-Beug, and her son, Nicky.
The former Walt Disney Records executive was known for her unwavering support for the girl’s cross-country track team at Santa Monica High School, where her daughters studied before graduating in 2001. At the team’s track meets, Beug would bring food for the entire team. When her daughters were fresh-men, she bought all 250 track team members uniforms because the high school was short on money.
Beug, who was working on a children’s book when she died, was an acclaimed writer and filmmaker. She had been honored for her work on Van Halen’s “Right Now” music video.
Menchaca led Amgen’s team that took potential new medications through the clinical trial stage, when they are administered to humans for the first time. She was often called to Washington D.C. to testify before the FDA about the effects of the drugs.
Menchaca had just watched her daughter, Imani, play in a soccer tournament in Ra-leigh, N.C. the day before she died. Imani was a star player at Harvard- Westlake before joining the soccer team at the University of Portland as a starting middle forward. Menchaca and her husband were known for not missing any of their daughter’s games, even after she moved to Portland.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 11, 2003. Read the original PDF.