Santa Monica women leave behind families
By Daily Press staff
Four years ago Sunday thousands of people perished in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania as a result of the terrorist attacks. Two of those victims were Santa Monicans.
Although there are no scheduled events planned in Santa Monica to remember the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, many Santa Monicans will spend the day in their own way remembering Dora Menchaca, 45, and Carolyn Beug, 48, who 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, from Dulles International Airport in Virginia. Beug was aboard American Airlines flight 11 that originated in Boston.
Menchaca wasn’t supposed to be on flight 77. She boarded the plane as a standby 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 released by Thousand-Oaks-based Amgen Inc., where she worked in the clinical development department. But the 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, Lindsey and Lauren 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 attended before graduating in 2001. At the team’s track meets, Beug would bring food for the entire team. When her daughters were freshmen, 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 Raleigh, 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 10, 2005. Read the original PDF.