Liviu Librescu

• Age: 76
• Status: Professor, department of engineering sciences and mechanics
• Family: Wife, Marlena, and two sons, Arieh and Joe
• Residence: Blacksburg

Related

• Memorial service: New York community honors Holocaust survivor
• Sign Liviu's guest book
• Virginia Tech shooting victims

Caroline Merrey is one of the students who jumped.

It was a frightening whirlwind. An average Monday in professor Liviu Librescu’s solid mechanics class that in a blink turned from reviewing homework to the unmistakable pop of gunshots outside her Norris Hall classroom.

In the flurry of students dialing 911 on cell phones, taking cover on the floor and twisting open second story windows to escape, Merrey, 22, glanced over her shoulder before jumping.

“I just remember looking back and seeing him at the door,” the Virginia Tech senior recalled of her professor. “I don’t think I would be here if it wasn’t for him.”

By Tuesday morning, newspapers from Washington, D.C., to Jerusalem shared the story of how Librescu — a 76 year-old Holocaust survivor — blocked his classroom doorway from a gunman while his students leapt to freedom.

“It wouldn’t amaze me he would do such a thing,” fellow engineering professor Muhammad Hajj said. “He’s that kind of person, willing to take care of others, protect others.”

Hajj, the engineering faculty organization president, was not inside Norris Hall on Monday — a classroom building turned crime scene where the majority of the day’s 33 killings took place. He has no firsthand knowledge of what his colleague did that day.

But Hajj remembers meeting Librescu 15 years ago — and many of the days in between. He always greeted Hajj with “good morning,” “good afternoon” or “how’s your day going?” When he spotted Hajj in his office across the hall, Librescu always smiled.

Since Librescu’s death, Hajj has heard from colleagues at campuses around the world, expressing condolences for the survivor who died violently on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

His funeral, the Jerusalem Post reported, is planned to be held in Israel. Librescu — who moved from Israel to Virginia with his family in 1986 — was highly-respected by students, Hajj said.

It’s been reported that many students e-mailed Librescu’s wife since the shooting, telling how he blocked the gunman.

This semester was the first Merrey had Librescu as her professor. She thought he was a nice man — very concerned about his students. When she spoke to him, he was always casual.

When she jumped from his classroom window Monday morning, Merrey aimed for a bush. She hit the shrubbery, flipped and landed on her back, knocking the wind out of her.

She was later hospitalized — rescue workers thought she broke her back. There, she found out from friends about her professor’s fate.

“You never know what to expect out of people in situations like this,” she said.

As students left their thoughts online at sites such as Facebook, one word was used over and over : “hero.”

— Erinn Hutkin