Governor Deval L. Patrick has signed legislation to name a street in Salem, Massachusetts, in honor of a Bunker Hill Community College alumnus killed in action in Afghanistan. James A. Ayube, a Salem resident, graduated from Bunker Hill Community College in 2007 with an associate degree in sociology.
Sergeant Ayube, a U.S. Army medic, was killed by a suicide bomber during a combat mission on Dec. 8, 2010. The street, Sergeant James Ayube Memorial Drive, will commemorate Sergeant Ayube’s service to the nation. Ayube, 25, was the recipient of a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He had served previously in the Iraq War.
Lloyd Sheldon Johnson, a professor in the Behavioral Science Department at the College, remembered Ayube as “a wonderful and sensitive student who had a focus and a force that were infectious.”
Bunker Hill Community College currently enrolls more than 400 veterans of the U.S. armed forces. The College offers a seminar geared to the concerns of veterans, and has recently opened a Veterans Center to help student veterans with GI Bill benefits, academics and health services.