I was awestruck and was filled with a profound respect for this educator when I read this story. People with this level of devotion and concern for humanity live, imo, the ideals that are more powerful than bullets and words.
"As Jews worldwide honored on Monday the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust, a 76-year-old survivor sacrificed his life to save his students in Monday's shooting at Virginia Tech College that left 32 dead and over two dozen wounded.
Professor Liviu Librescu, 76, threw himself in front of the shooter, who had attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, but all the students lived - because of him.
Liviu Librescu was killed as he blocked his classroom door to keep the gunman out as students escaped out the window.
"When he heard the gunfire, he blocked the entrance and got shot through the door," his daughter-in-law Ayala Schmulevich said.
"He realized he had to save the students," she said. "That was the kind of man he was."
The hero educator was beginning a class on solid mechanics when all hell broke loose on the second floor of Norris Hall.
"It wasn't like an automatic weapon, but it was a steady 'pow,' 'pow,' 'pow,' 'pow,'" student Richard Mallalieu, 23, told The Washington Post. "We didn't know what to do at first."
The students in the class dropped to the floor and started overturning desks to hide behind as about a dozen shots rang out, he said.
Then the gunfire started coming closer. Librescu, 77, fearlessly braced himself against the door, holding it shut against the gunman in the hall, while students darted to the windows of the second-floor classroom to escape the slaughter, survivors said.
Mallalieu and most of his classmates hung out of the windows and dropped about 10 feet to bushes and grass below - but Librescu stayed behind to hold off the crazed gunman.
Alec Calhoun, 20, said the last thing he saw before he jumped from the window was Librescu, blocking the door against the madman in the hallway.
He died trying to protect the students.
Librescu taught aerospace and ocean engineering but focused much of his time on research.
He leaves a wife and two sons. His family is planning to bury him in Israel.
Professor Librescu and his wife, immigrated to Israel from Romania in 1978 and then moved to Virginia in 1985 for his sabbatical, but had stayed since then.
Thanks to his heroic effort almost the whole class has survived."
"As Jews worldwide honored on Monday the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust, a 76-year-old survivor sacrificed his life to save his students in Monday's shooting at Virginia Tech College that left 32 dead and over two dozen wounded.
Professor Liviu Librescu, 76, threw himself in front of the shooter, who had attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, but all the students lived - because of him.
Liviu Librescu was killed as he blocked his classroom door to keep the gunman out as students escaped out the window.
"When he heard the gunfire, he blocked the entrance and got shot through the door," his daughter-in-law Ayala Schmulevich said.
"He realized he had to save the students," she said. "That was the kind of man he was."
The hero educator was beginning a class on solid mechanics when all hell broke loose on the second floor of Norris Hall.
"It wasn't like an automatic weapon, but it was a steady 'pow,' 'pow,' 'pow,' 'pow,'" student Richard Mallalieu, 23, told The Washington Post. "We didn't know what to do at first."
The students in the class dropped to the floor and started overturning desks to hide behind as about a dozen shots rang out, he said.
Then the gunfire started coming closer. Librescu, 77, fearlessly braced himself against the door, holding it shut against the gunman in the hall, while students darted to the windows of the second-floor classroom to escape the slaughter, survivors said.
Mallalieu and most of his classmates hung out of the windows and dropped about 10 feet to bushes and grass below - but Librescu stayed behind to hold off the crazed gunman.
Alec Calhoun, 20, said the last thing he saw before he jumped from the window was Librescu, blocking the door against the madman in the hallway.
He died trying to protect the students.
Librescu taught aerospace and ocean engineering but focused much of his time on research.
He leaves a wife and two sons. His family is planning to bury him in Israel.
Professor Librescu and his wife, immigrated to Israel from Romania in 1978 and then moved to Virginia in 1985 for his sabbatical, but had stayed since then.
Thanks to his heroic effort almost the whole class has survived."
