winword.exe process on the loose and do not terminate

Greetings,

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (SP2) - 10.50.4000.0 (X64)
SSIS 2005 Package 

Execute Task is calling a home-grown Windows application that pulls data from a database and
writes it to the FileSystem in either Tif or PDF format, depending on the circumstances, using
Word>SaveAs functionality as the PDF generator. For future reference, Word is called via COM Objects.
Although it's a windows application, it has no GUI. Parameters are sent to it via command prompt.
This is a well tested application standing on its own. When I test it I watch
the Server Processes in Task Manager and see WINWORD.EXE appear, and disappear when it's complete.

For Each loop has 10 ADO records to process. The first 8 records process correctly by producing
8 tif's as desired. The ninth record should result in a PDF, but instead, it opens WINWORD.exe, 
doesn't produce my PDF file, it leaves WINWORD.EXE open, and the For Each loop continues-on to 
produce the final tif file (record 10). WINWORD.EXE becomes a runaway process, growing until it has
completely consumed all of the memory resources and locks-up the server.

I don't want to debate about how I should be producing my tif and pdf files. I have no control
over that. The problem here is that when the home grown application is run on its' own,
it performs as expected by terminating WINWORD.EXE and producing the correct output.
However, when it runs inside of an SSIS package/ForEach Loop container, it has a problem with it.
The fact that the home-grown application works fine on its' own, and that SSIS successfully
produces the desired output on 9 out of 10 loops, suggests that SSIS is the culprit here.

Lastly, the SSIS Package is launched via SQL Job.

Thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.