Milledgeville college mourns professor who died in Jordan bus crash

<p>Students and faculty members at Georgia College & State University are mourning the loss of a professor who died in a Jordan bus crash that also killed her 6-year-old son and two others.</p><p>Susan Atefat-Peckham, 34, and her son, Cyrus, died instantly when the tour bus they were riding in hit a trailer Sunday near Ghor Safi, 75 miles southwest of the capital Amman, according to the Jordanian-American Commission for Educational Exchange, known as Fulbright. An unidentified Jordanian friend and a family tutor also were killed.</p><p>Atefat-Peckhams husband, Joel Peckham, was hospitalized in a Jordanian hospital with a broken collarbone, said officials at Georgia Military College. Peckham taught at the college before moving overseas with his family in December to teach English at the University of Jordan as a Fulbright scholar.</p><p>The couples 3-year-old son, Darius, and Atefat-Peckhams mother also were in the accident but were not seriously injured.</p><p>Atefat-Peckham, a native of New York City, was a professor of English and creative writing at GC&SU for three semesters before joining her husband as a Fulbright scholar at the Jordanian university, where she taught poetry, creative writing and English.</p><p>Susan was a gifted poet, but the most important part of that is she really wanted to instill a love of the craft in her students, said Martin Lannon, one of her co-workers at GC&SU.</p><p>Alain McNemara, executive director of the Jordanian-American Commission for Educational Exchange, said the family had embraced their time in Jordan.</p><p>The Peckhams represent the very best of what it means to be a Fulbright scholar; they are a family that dedicated itself to international understanding and cultural and academic exchange, he said.</p><p>Information from: The Macon Telegraph</p>