Romanian-born professor sacrifices life to save students in Virginia Tech shooting

18/04/2007

Liviu Librescu survived the Holocaust and went on to become an expert on mechanical engineering. On Monday, he died while helping his students escape the worst massacre on an American campus to date.

(Nine o'Clock, Reuters, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Record, The Times - 18/04/07; AP, UPI, Chicago Tribune, CNSNews, HotNews.ro - 17/04/07)

A candle and flowers adorn a portrait of Liviu Librescu at Bucharest's Polytechnic University on Tuesday (April 17th). [Getty Images]

The lives of 32 people ended abruptly Monday (April 16th) in a gunman's killing spree at Virginia Tech, the bloodiest massacre in an American campus to date. One of the victims was Romanian-born Liviu Librescu, a dual US-Israeli citizen, who taught mechanical engineering at the university. A survivor of the Holocaust, he died a heroic death while trying to save his students.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," the teacher's son, Joe Librescu, told the AP in a telephone interview Tuesday. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."

A comment in Britain's The Times Wednesday said the 76-year-old professor, who devoted his life to teaching and research, saved at least nine lives.

Librescu and his students were in classroom on the second floor at Virginia Tech's Norris Hall when the gunman, identified as Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old South Korean student, began his rampage next door. It all began with a thunderous sound "like an enormous hammer," one student said in his account of the events. Then, screams and continued bangs were heard.

Librescu rushed to the door, barricading it with his body in an attempt to stop Cho and to give his students time to escape by jumping out of windows. Although some suffered fractures, they were safe. The professor, however, was shot dead after Cho forced open the door and gunned him down.

"I must've been the eighth or ninth person who jumped, and I think I was the last," Alec Calhoun, 20, told reporters.

"My father has showed a sense of his courage in standing up for what he believed since long ago," Joe Librescu said.

Born to a family of Romanian Jews, Librescu was sent to a labour camp as a boy after Romania joined forces with Nazi Germany in World War II. Along with thousands of other Jews, he and his family were then taken to a central ghetto in the city of Focsani.

Up to 380,000 Romanian Jews were killed by the collaborationist regime during the war, a 2004 report indicated.

Librescu graduated from the Polytechnic University in Bucharest with a degree in in mechanics and aviation construction in 1953. He later specialised in composite structures and aeroelasticity.

Because of his Israeli sympathies and refusal to swear allegiance to Nicolae Ceaucescu's communist regime, he was later forbidden to have any contact with sources outside Romania and was not allowed to leave the country.

However, thanks to the personal intervention of then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Librescu was able to leave for Israel, where he settled in 1978. Shortly afterwards, he joined Tel Aviv University, teaching mechanical engineering there until 1985. He then left to spend a sabbatical year in Virginia, eventually deciding to stay there.

The Romanian academic community joined Librescu's Virginia Tech colleagues in morning his tragic death Tuesday.

"It is a great loss," said Ecaterina Andronescu, head of the Polytechnic University in Bucharest. "We have immense consideration for the way he reacted and defended his students with his life."

The author of a large number of publications, Librescu received numerous awards for his work. He received a doctorate from the Romanian Academy of Sciences in 1969. His alma mater awarded him an honorary degree in 2000. He has also received several NASA grants.

Colleagues described Librescu as a "brilliant scientist," an "extraordinary person" and a "real gentleman". He is survived by his wife, Marlena, and their two sons.