Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy is routinely named the region's best writer by readers of The Roanoker magazine.

Recent columns

• Farewell to those who made this space great
• Homeplace founder had recipe for success
• Pam's Snack Shack: Becoming her own boss

• Column archive

BLACKSBURG — At mid morning Friday, families away from the center of the Virginia Tech campus mingled with the excitement found at every graduation at every school.

On the Drillfield, memorials to the 33 students killed by gunfire April 16 united onlookers in sadness and grief.

The Ratto family from the Portland, Ore., area represented the first of those worlds. They were Steve and Barb, the proud parents, and their son, Matt, who earned his master’s degree in business administration and scored a job with IBM’s global business group in Fairfax.

The families and visitors passing before the memorials to the 32 slain students and Seung-Hui Cho, their killing classmate, represented the second, darker world.

Interesting juxtapositions
On one side of Washington Street, outside Cassell Coliseum, the Rattos sought shade and praised Tech.

Parked side by side on the grass across the street outside Ambler Johnston dormitory, where the shootings began, were 20 marked and unmarked Virginia State Police cruisers.

While visitors to the Drillfield looked solemnly at faded flowers, notes and Hokie Stones, other visitors not 5 feet away talked giddily.

Near them, TV crews conducted interviews.

In his dark pants, crisp white shirt and red, white and blue striped tie, John Middleton of Tampa, Fla., occupied both worlds. He was jubilant that his daughter, Casey, had made it through school as a member of the Tech Corps of Cadets.

Yet, his eyes filled with tears as he walked away from the memorials.

His voice quavered as he talked of Casey’s determination to serve her country.

“She is a product of 9/11,” he said.

He supported her decision to join the corps. After all, he spent 22 years in the Army and is a civilian employee of the U.S. Department of the Defense.

Strong defense
Over and over, people said the public ceremony Friday night in Lane Stadium should mix recognition of the dead and injured with the usual joy and comic behavior.

They did not want their children to be deprived of their moments in the sun.

They did not want the victims to be ignored.

They agreed that when the now-famous Hokie Cheer erupted, it would express solidarity and defiance as well as glee.

Casey Marstaller of North Yarmouth, Maine, a dairy science graduate, pronounced herself ready to head for her job doing dairy industry public relations for a company in Wisconsin.

But not until late Friday night, after her parents provided her dairy science friends with a feast of 70 lobsters they’d brought from home.

Hsuan Kyo, 21, looked forward to finding a job in New York in her computer science major. Her brother, Shih-Lu Kyo, 24, flew 18 hours from Taiwan for the occasion. Her cousin, Sally Wu, 28, came in from Dallas.

Wu put her arm around Hsuan Kyo and said, “We’re proud of her.”

On the Drillfield, Alex Draguk of Baltimore said that while he was in high school, he and his parents looked at 10 universities. He immediately knew Tech was right for him – and it was.

“It’s the biggest bargain on the East Coast,” said his father, Steve.

Not 6 feet away, a printed sheet on Cho’s memorial quoted Exodus: “You Shalt Not Kill.”

Cheryl Wacker of Reston graduated from Tech in 1972.

Her son, Michael Pickup, earned his master’s degree and will pursue his doctorate in cancer research at Vanderbilt. Wacker and her husband, Tim Pickup, drove down for the ceremony.

Wacker said she visited the campus in 1982, “and I kept thinking to myself how protected I felt when I was there. … College didn’t represent real life at all.”

Now, she said, “I wonder how many students now will have that same kind of memory, of feeling safe and protected. … I want that Hokie spirit to stay alive.”