Professor Liviu Librescu and his wife Marlena
Ryan Clark
Two very different men, but they shared at least one remarkable thing in common–they assisted those in need, at the expense of their own lives–Professor Liviu Librescu and student Ryan Clark.
Israeli professor and Holocaust survivor Liviu Librescu saved the lives of students as he stood in front of his classroom door to keep the roaming murderer from shooting his students. The extra time allowed many young people to escape by jumping out the windows.
Ryan Clark was a young man just a month or so away from graduating. His nature made him perfect to be a Resident Assistant, he was always helping people, and went out of his way to make newcomers feel welcomed. On Monday, Ryan went to help his neighbor Emily Jane Hilscher when a fight broke out between her and the murderer Cho. That natural act of compassion and protection cost him his life. Astounding men both. Here are their stories.
Holocaust Survivor, Professor Killed Helping Students Escape
JERUSALEM — A 76-year-old professor who survived the Holocaust was shot to death while saving his students from the Virginia Tech assailant, students said.
Liviu Librescu, an internationally respected aeronautics engineer who taught at Virginia Tech for 20 years, saved the lives of several students by barricading his classroom door before he was gunned down in the massacre, according to e-mail accounts sent by students to his wife.
“He should be recognized as a hero,” Virginia Tech graduate student Philip Huffstetler said. “We should be in such great debt to his family for the rest of our lives.” “He is the reason that the student could not get inside and shoot more people,” said Asal Arad, a Virginia Tech student. “Obviously, he is a hero.”
This astounding sacrifice from a man who has known mostly hardship his entire life. Interned in a concentration camp when Romania collaborated with the Nazis during WWII. Having survived that, his career was shortened when he refused to pledge allegiance to the communist Romanian government. And only when Menachem Begin intervened, was his family eventually allowed to emigrate to Israel.
So the next time someone tries to make excuses for a murderer or a terrorist, or some other evil soul, by excusing their behavior because of a tough childhood, or abuse in life, remember Mr. Librescu who showed us that no matter what happens to you, you are in charge of who you become.
God bless Mr. Librescu, his family, and Israel for saving them. And God bless the Jewish people everywhere, for having to withstand so much, and yet serving as examples for humanity in all of man’s pursuits, including the effort to be our best selves, no matter what.
‘Above and beyond helping people’
Virginia Tech senior Ryan Clark, one of the first victims in Monday’s shooting, exemplified Virginia Tech’s motto “That I May Serve,” according to his family, friends and co-workers…Clark, 22, a senior from Martinez, Ga., and a member of Virginia Tech’s marching band, was a triple major in psychology, biology and English with a 4.0 grade point average, his family said. He planned to pursue a doctoral degree in psychology with a focus in cognitive neuroscience.
Ryan Clark, whose nickname was “Stack,” played baritone and was a fifth-year member, the personnel officer and a former co-librarian of the Marching Virginians. He also was a member of Circle K, the student service organization.
Clark’s friends posted online tributes remembering him as honest, caring and energetic. “He was a loved friend, mentor, and role model who will always hold a special place in the hearts of all the MVs [Marching Virginians] as a true example of The Spirit Of Tech,” one commemoration said.
Illustrating what an astounding family Ryan comes from, his twin brother, Bryan, even in the midst of his brother’s heroism, remains humble about his selfless act.
He was a few short weeks away from graduating with top honors at Virginia Tech with not one, not two, but three different majors. Quickly dubbed the over achiever in the family, they always expected Ryan to make headlines one day. But never could they have imagined it would be like this.
“It’s not the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s the right place at the wrong time. He was doing what he knew was right,†said his brother Bryan Clark.
Ryan Clark’s twin-brother, Bryan, says Ryan was only doing his job as a 2nd year resident advisor at the Ambler Johnston coed dorm when he was caught in the line of fire.
“There was a commotion and he went to help. That’s how he’s always been.â€
Wow.
UPDATE:
Gateway Pundit has a moving post on Sean McQuade, one of the VTech victims who remains in a coma.
Thanks Tammy! What you just blogged was indeed the true face of America. Everyday folks doing the extraordinary. God be with them all and their families.
Hello everybody….I just want to ask something…
How come no one can really say the truth? Professor LIVIU LIBRESCU was ROMANIAN, he was born in Romania, he studied in Romania, he got all his degrees in Romania…how come you avoid this information, but you keep saying he is Israelian??? His religion was jewish, but he was born and he lived in Romania for more than 30 years!!! So, please, let’s say the truth, not just a part of it…
PS: jewish people were not the only ones who suffered because of the Nazis and Hitler etc…
[Wow, with everything that just happened, this is your response? The need to assert the importance of *your* victimhood? What’s wrong with you? And regarding Romania, I suppose since Romanian Nazi collaborators tried to KILL him, and then Romanian Communist collaborators tried to RUIN him, finally driving his family to FLEE that communist pit for Israel as they CHOSE to become Israelis, you could say his choice prevails here, not your miserable malignant narcissism. Does that answer your question?–ed.]
These now dead men understood that right and wrong are not yet dead. May we not forget that.
Wonderful service to fellow man! God bless both of you! Now we have the spectre of Rosie and her ilke calling for the rest of us to become further victims by taking away any means of self defense! When the left can 100% guarantee that they have eliminated all the bad guys and there is no longer a threat to me or mine…they can have my gun…until then FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!
I find myself clinging to the story of Liviu Librescu to keep from giving up. Yesterday I shared with Tammy and Pat a quote I remembered from Elie Wiesel’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize. At one point as he speaks of his responsibility as a Holocaust survivor, he refers to himself in his memories in third person as “the boy.” Wiesel says, “And now the boy is turning to me. ‘Tell me,’ he says, ‘what have you done with my future, what have you done with your life?’ And I tell him I have tried.” As I told them, it has made me weep over and over again when I think of what Professor Librescu can answer that boy.
We always crave stories of sacrifice and heroism in the details of a tragedy, because we need some scrap of decency to redeem humanity and just help us get through it. Pat and I touched on whether people like him are a product of another era. My first reaction was to say it was his history that forged his instinct, having endured the labor camp hell within the prisoners’ bond of sacrifice and care retold countless times by survivors. But now it occurs to me that we rarely experience a tragic or evil event *without* hearing of someone — very often a young person — who acts before pausing to consider personal cost.
For me, that realization alone does redeem humanity, including this generation. And it does get me through the overwhelming emotion from these times when profound beauty intersects with inexplicable evil.
Hearing Librescu’s story is humbling. The courage to stand up against this madness, the willingness to sacrifice his life, which had been threatened and beaten down so many times before, to protect those whose lives are ahead of them. The selflessness is breathtaking. His death reminds us that there are some things that are worth fighting and dying for. In his case, he died to protect the futures of his students.
I have heard his students express their profound gratitude to him and his family, for what he did for them. I’m sure they’re wondering if there is some way they could repay the favor, for this second chance at life.
I’ve used this before, so it may seem tired. There’s a scene at the end of “Saving Private Ryan” where Capt. John Miller is mortally wounded, but the battle is over. Miller had done everything he could to protect Ryan. Private Ryan approaches him, and before he dies Miller tells him, “Earn it…Earn this.” The movie ends with a very touching scene. Ryan, many years older, visits Capt. Miller’s grave at the cemetary on Normandy Beach. He ponders with his wife the life he has led, and hopes that he has lived up to Miller’s expectations.
To those students who wonder what they can do, I’d say they should do what they can to do something worthwhile with their lives. They should remember that they have been given a second chance, so that when they run into life’s challenges they will not be deterred. Most challenges they will run into will not be as great as the sacrifice that was made for them. They will be well served by keeping that in perspective.
Something tells me that if the perp had been a Romanian Jew, folks like CMR could not get ENOUGH of him being Jewish.