Families identify two professors killed Monday
Two engineering professors, one from India and one from Israel, were among those killed in Monday's shootings.
Liviu Librescu, 76, an engineering science and mathematics lecturer, blocked the gunman from entering his classroom and was shot. The Jerusalem Post reports that Prof. Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, died but "but all the students [in his classroom] lived - because of him," Virginia Tech student Asael Arad - also an Israeli - told Israeli Army Radio.
Several of Librescu's other students sent e-mails to his wife, Marlena, telling of how he blocked the gunman's way and saved their lives, said the son, Joe.
"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."
Also killed was Professor G.V. Loganathan, 51, a lecturer at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
"We all feel like we have had an electric shock, we do not know what to do," his brother G.V. Palanivel told the NDTV news channel from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. "He has been a driving force for all of us, the guiding force."
Loganathan, who was born in the southern Indian city of Chennai, had been at Virginia Tech since 1982.
7:15 AM ET | 04-17-2007 | permalink
