Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Jarrett Lane: Uniquely talented, and a nice person
Jarrett Lee Lane
- Age: 22
- Class: Senior
- Major: Civil engineering
- Hometown: Narrows, Va.
- High School: Narrows
- Survivors: Tracy Lane, mother; Nancy Morgan, grandmother
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Jarrett Lane was valedictorian of his 2003 Narrows High School class, a high-sports standout and a church leader.
"He’s just one of those people, it’s very rare that you can be good at so many things and be such a nice person, too," said Narrows High School athletic director Don Lowe, who was Lane’s coach and friend.
Lane was raised by his mother and grandmother, according to Lowe.
At Virginia Tech, where he was a senior engineering major, he was already taking graduate-level courses — and was in professor G.V. Loganathan’s graduate hydrology class when he was killed.
Lane was recently accepted to graduate school at the University of Florida with a full ride and a graduate assistantship. Teachers and friends alike described him as mannerly — "the kind of person who’s not going to be ... loud or boisterous, but when work needs to be done, he’s going to do it," Lowe said.
An engineering intern for Virginia Tech’s Site & Infrastructure Development, he was trusted to do professional-level work.
"He was the kind of guy that once you met him he was like part of your family — the whole town knew him," said David Dent, his internship supervisor as well as a former church youth group leader of Lane’s and a family friend. "He was always the guy that the other ones looked up to."
Craig Moore, another Site & Infrastructure Development coworker, recalled Lane as a serious student who could also be an office jokester. "We were always kidding, picking on one another. If you left your desk with your e-mail up, you might later found out that he’d invited someone to a [fake] meeting using your e-mail," Moore said.
Lane played rec-club sports at Tech and attended First Baptist Church in Narrows.
In a facebook posting, he described himself foremost as a Christian. "I get along with a lot of people, but I have only a few close friends," he wrote. "I’ll be graduating this semester and hopefully that will mean a change of scenery in the fall when I go to Graduate School. I’m definitely outgoing!"
His family declined to be interviewed but issued the following statement:
"All of us are still deeply stunned and in shock over the loss of our son, grandson, and brother, Jarrett Lee Lane. He was a fun-loving young man, full of spirit.
"He had a caring heart and was a friend to everybody he met, both at Virginia Tech and here in Narrows. We are leaning on God’s grace in these trying hours and appreciate all the prayers, expressions of sympathy, and thoughts."
— Beth Macy
