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December 2, 2008 12:02:32 PM CST

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Professor Gave Life to Save Students

Posted Apr 17, 07 8:49 AM CDT in US 

(Newser) – A 77-year-old Virginia Tech professor who barred the door to his classroom against the gunman wreaking havoc down the hall sacrificed his life to save his students. Professor Liviu Librescu was teaching a class on solid mechanics when he heard gunshots. He held the door closed as students escaped through the window, and was shot through the door.

The heroic professor taught aerospace and ocean engineering, and once did research for NASA. His wife and two sons plan to bury him in Israel, the Daily News reports.  "He realized he had to save the students," said his daughter-in-law Ayala Schmulevich. "That was the kind of man he was."

Source New York Daily News

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Students console each other after a memorial service at War Memorial Chapel near Norris Hall, the site of a shooting on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., Monday, April 16, 2007. A gunman...   (Associated Press)
  (Virginia Tech)
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