Snapshots identified victims

At least 17 victims of the Virginia Tech shootings were officially identified yesterday by authorities or relatives. Here are snapshots of 10 of them.

Christopher J. Bishop, 35

German teacher

Bishop taught German at Virginia Tech and helped oversee an exchange program with a German university with Darmstadt University of Technology.

Bishop earned bachelor's and master's degrees in German and was a Fulbright scholar at Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany.

According to his website (www.memory39.com), Bishop spent four years living in Germany, where he "spent most of his time learning the language, teaching English, drinking large quantities of wheat beer, and wooing a certain fraulein."

The "fraulein" was Bishop's wife, Stephanie Hofer, who also teaches in Virginia Tech's German program.

Ryan Clark, 22

Band member

Clark was called "Stack" by his friends, many of whom he met as a resident assistant at West Ambler Johnston Hall, where the first shootings took place. He apparently was rushing to investigate when he came upon the gunman.

Clark was from Martinez, Ga., just outside Augusta.

He was a fifth-year student working toward degrees in biology and English, and a member of the Marching Virginians band.

"He was always smiling, always laughing. I don't think I ever saw him mad in the five years I knew him," said friend Gregory Walton, 25.

Kevin Granata, 45

Noted researcher

Granata, a professor of engineering science and mechanics, served in the military and later conducted orthopedic research in hospitals before coming to Virginia Tech, where he and his students researched muscle and reflex response and robotics.

His office was in Room 307 on the third floor of Norris Hall, where the second round of shooting occurred.

The head of the school's engineering science and mechanics department called Granata one of the top five biomechanics researchers in the country working on movement dynamics in cerebral palsy.

Engineering professor Demetri P. Telionis said Granata, who previously taught at the University of Virginia, was kind as well as successful.

"With so many research projects and graduate students, he still found time to spend with his family, and he coached his children in many sports and extracurricular activities," Telionis said.

Caitlin Hammaren, 19

'A leader'

Hammaren, of Westtown, N.Y., was a sophomore majoring in international studies and French, according to officials at her former school district.

"She was just one of the most outstanding young individuals that I've had the privilege of working with in my 31 years as an educator," said John P. Latini, principal of Minisink Valley High School, where she graduated in 2005. "Caitlin was a leader among our students."

Minisink Valley students and teachers shared their grief yesterday at a counseling center set up in the school, Latini said.

Emily Jane Hilscher, 19

Animal lover

Hilscher, a freshman majoring in animal and poultry sciences, lived next door to Ryan Clark in West Ambler Johnston Hall and apparently was the first person killed in the massacre.

She was known around her hometown of Woodville, Va., as an animal lover.

"She worked at a veterinarian's office and cared about them her whole life," said Rappahannock County Administrator John W. McCarthy, a family friend.

Jarrett Lee Lane, 22

'Full of spirit'

Lane was a senior civil engineering student who was valedictorian of his high school class in tiny Narrows, Va., just 30 miles from Virginia Tech.

His high school erected a memorial to Lane yesterday that included pictures, musical instruments, and his athletic jerseys.

Lane played the trombone, ran track, and played football and basketball at Narrows High School. He had recently been accepted to graduate school at the University of Florida with a scholarship.

Lane's brother-in-law Daniel Farrell called him fun-loving and "full of spirit." "He had a caring heart and was a friend to everyone he met."

Liviu Librescu, 76

Shielded students

Librescu, an Israeli engineering and math lecturer, was known for his research, but his son said he will be remembered as a hero for protecting students as the gunman tried to enter his classroom.

A native of Romania, Librescu was a Holocaust survivor. He had taught at Virginia Tech for 20 years and had an international reputation for his work in aeronautical engineering.

Librescu's son, Joe, said his father's students sent e-mails detailing how the professor saved their lives by blocking the doorway of his classroom from the approaching gunman before he was fatally shot.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said yesterday in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."

G.V. Loganathan, 53

Teacher, adviser

Loganathan was born in the southern Indian city of Chennai and had been a civil and environmental engineering professor at Virginia Tech since 1982.

Loganathan won several awards for excellence in teaching, had served on the faculty senate, and was an adviser to about 75 undergraduates.

Family members said that Loganathan, who leaves a wife and two daughters, one of whom is a Virginia Tech student, had planned on moving back to India in a few years.

"We all feel like we have had an electric shock," his brother G.V. Palanivel told the NDTV news channel in India. "He has been a driving force for all of us."

Mary Karen Read, 19

Found a home

Read was born in South Korea into an Air Force family and lived in Texas and California before settling in the northern Virginia suburb of Annandale.

Read considered a handful of colleges, including nearby George Mason University, before choosing Virginia Tech, according to her aunt Karen Kuppinger.

She had yet to declare a major.

"I think she wanted to try to spread her wings," said Kuppinger, of Rochester, N.Y.

Kuppinger said her niece had struggled to adjust to Tech's sprawling 2,600-acre campus. But she had recently begun making friends and was looking into joining a sorority.

Kuppinger said the family started calling Read as news reports surfaced Monday.

"After three or four hours passed . . . we did get concerned," Kuppinger said. "We honestly thought she would pop up."

Reema Samaha, 18

Dancer, actor

Samaha, a freshman from Centreville, Va., was an avid dancer and actor who devoted much of her time to the school's Contemporary Dance Ensemble, according to tributes posted by friends online. As a high school student, she won awards for her performances, including one for her role in "Fiddler on the Roof."

Nicole Bonfiglio, a student at Virginia Tech, remembered Samaha, a Lebanese-American, in a tribute on Facebook.com as "one of my first friends in high school," adding, "We sat next to each other in bio freshman year. Reema . . . you were so kind."

Her brother, Omar, told MSNBC: "I couldn't sleep last night. Every time I was trying to fall asleep, more things would pop into my head. I know I'll get through it," he added, "and I'm going to pray for everyone else."