Juan Ramon Ortiz Ortiz

• Age: 26
• Class: Graduate student, civil engineering
• Hometown: Bayamon, Puerto Rico
• Undergraduate College: Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico
• Parents' names: Juan and Brunilda Ortiz
• Blacksburg residence: Appalachian Drive apartment, Blacksburg

Related

• Sign Juan's guest book
• Virginia Tech shooting victims

Juan Ramon Ortiz Ortiz found joy in everything he did whether it was studying the complexities of engineering or whimsically playing the drums, said his wife, Liselle Vega Cortes.

"He loved life and he didn’t deserve this," she said, choking up.

Ortiz, 26, a graduate student in civil engineering, was in Dr. G.V. Loganathan’s hydrology class in Norris Hall when they were killed by the Virginia Tech shooter.

Ortiz was from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, and Cortes, 28, also was a graduate engineering student from Puerto Rico. They met in a class at the Polytechnic University there in 2001. They were married in October.

They decided to enroll at Virginia Tech after visiting several different universities. He was going to major in water resources, while she studied geotechnical engineering.

"We wanted a place where we could both be able to study and we came here in 2003 and again last year because the university invited us in August," Cortes said. "We liked the program that they offered here."

Ortiz was pursuing a masters in water resources because he dreamed of designing dams.

He also was a member of a family music band in Puerto Rico, where he played the timbal, a lightweight drum made of wood or metal.

"He was studious, but he was also happy all the time," Cortes said. "He liked to play basketball and he loved to play the timbal.

"He didn’t deserve to die like this."

— Pamela Podger