UB Then
Marcia Jarvis, Greg’s widow, presents the flag to President Steven B. Sample during the dedication of Jarvis Hall in 1987. Photo courtesy of University Archives
By JAY REY
Published January 28, 2025
Editor's note: This story is part of "UB Then," an occasional feature highlighting people, events and other interesting elements of UB history pulled from the University Archives.
The explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger 39 years ago today will forever be part of UB history, as will the story behind the white flag with gold fringe and blue UB seal tucked away inside University Archives in Capen Hall.
The flag was among the personal items carried aboard the Challenger by crewmember Greg Jarvis, a UB alumnus making his first voyage into space.
Born in Detroit and raised in the Central New York town of Mohawk, Jarvis earned his master’s degree from Northeastern, spent four years in the space division of the Air Force and in 1973 landed a job with the Space and Communications Group of Hughes Aircraft Co.
But Jarvis got his start at UB, where he received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1967. Years later, Jarvis was humbled by the opportunity to give the commencement address to engineering students in the spring of 1985.
Top: The UB flag Gregory Jarvis took with him on the Space Shuttle Challenger. Bottom left: George Lee (left), then dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Jarvis (center); and then-President Steven B. Sample at the 1985 commencement dinner. Bottom right: Sample displays the flag presented by Jarvis’ widow, Marcia, during the dedication of Jarvis Hall in 1987. Photos courtesy of University Archives
So, when he was chosen from among more than 600 applicants to serve as one of two payload specialists aboard a NASA shuttle mission, Jarvis asked UB for a flag he could take into space with the intention of returning it to his alma mater following his mission.
“I thought it was a great school,” Jarvis once told an interviewer. “It was academically challenging and rewarding. This is a small token I can perform for the way they unlocked my future.”
At 11:39 a.m. on Jan. 28, 1986, a Tuesday, the Challenger exploded over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Fla., just 73 seconds into its flight. Jarvis and his six other crewmates were killed. He was 41.
Following the tragedy, watched live on television by millions of viewers, there was an outpouring of support among the UB community for naming a building after Jarvis. Two students even went so far as to nail a handmade “Jarvis Hall” sign to the side of one of the engineering buildings on the North Campus.
It was made official on Oct. 12, 1987, when the campus community gathered to dedicate what was then the Engineering East Building as Gregory B. Jarvis Hall — the name that remains today.
In attendance that day was Jarvis’ widow, Marcia, who came bearing a gift: the white and blue UB flag her husband carried with him on his ill-fated voyage.
The flag had been recovered from among the wreckage inside a watertight safe containing Jarvis’ personal belongings.
She presented the flag to UB as her husband had intended.