FiftyandFurthermore pays tribute to Liviu Librescu, the Virginia Tech professor deemed a hero after using his own body to block the door where the gunman stood so that his students could escape

FiftyandFurthermore pays tribute to Liviu Librescu, the Virginia Tech professor deemed a hero after using his own body to block the door where the gunman stood so that his students could escape. His truly selfless act and his passion for those he mentored make him a Sage to be honored.

Liviu Librescu was born in 1930 to a Jewish family in the city of Ploiesti, Romania. After Romania allied with Nazi Germany in World War II, his father, Isidore Librescu, was deported to a labor camp in Transnistria region, and later his family, along with thousands of other Jews, was deported to a ghetto in the Romanian city of Focsani. Liviu as a boy was interned in a labor camp in Transnistria. Some sources report that he was taken to a Soviet labor camp. Speaking to Israeli Channel 10 TV the day after his death, his wife Marlena, who is also a Holocaust survivor, said, "We were in Romania during the Second World War, and we were Jews there among the Germans, and among the anti-Semitic Romanians." Speaking to BBC after his death, his son Joe said Liviu did not wish to talk much about that period of his life. Dorothea Weisbuch, a cousin of Livrescu living in Romania, said in an interview to Romanian newspaper Cotidianul: "He was an extraordinarily gifted person and very altruist. When he was little, he was very currious and knew everything, so that I thought he would become very conceited, but it did not happen so; he was of a rare modesty."

Liviu Librescu survived the Holocaust, and was repatriated to Communist Romania and became an accomplished scientist. He studied aerospace engineering at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, graduating in 1952 and continuing with a master degree at the same university. He was awarded a Ph.D. in fluid mechanics in 1969 at the Academia de Stiinte din România. From 1953 to 1975, he worked as a researcher at the Bucharest Institute of Applied Mechanics, and later at the Institute of Fluid Mechanics and the Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Aerospace Constructions of the Academy of Science of Romania.

His career stalled in the 1970s because he refused to swear allegiance to the Communist Party of Romania and was forced out of academia there for his sympathies towards Israel. When Librescu requested permission to emigrate to Israel, he was fired from his job. In 1976, a smuggled research manuscript that he had published in the Netherlands drew him international attention in the growing field of material dynamics.

After years of government refusal, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin personally intervened to get the Librescu family an emigration permit by directly asking Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu to let them go. They moved to Israel in 1978.

From 1979 to 1986, Librescu was Professor of Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering at Tel-Aviv University and taught at the Technion in Haifa. In 1985, he left on sabbatical for the United States, where he served as Professor at Virginia Tech from September 1, 1985 until his death. He served as a member on the editorial board of seven scientific journals and was invited as a guest editor of special issues of five other journals. Most recently, he was co-chair of the International Organizing Committee of the 7-th International Congress on Thermal Stress, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China, June 4, 2007 to 7, and was scheduled to give the invited keynote lecture there. According to his wife, no other Virginia Tech professor has ever published more articles than Librescu.

At age 76, Librescu was among the thirty-two people who were murdered in the Virginia Tech massacre. On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho entered Norris Hall Engineering Building and opened fire on classrooms. Librescu, who taught a solid mechanics class in Room 204 in the Norris Hall during April 2007, held the door of his classroom shut while Cho was attempting to enter it. Although he was shot through the door, LFifty and Furthermore | Sage in the Spotlight | Liviu Librescu son rkson vis Haul Travelrship r Business 50 and furthermore, 50 plus, baby boomer, baby boomers, boomer, boomers, doree lynn, dorree lynn, dr. doree lynn, dr. dorree lynn, fifty and furthermore, fifty plus, grandparenting, grandparents, over 50, over fifty, retirees, retirement, senior, senior citizens, seniors, best places to retire, cruise, cruises, day spa, entertainment, politics, restaurants, wine, spas, travel, vacation, vacation packages, vacations communities, retirement planning, retirement savings, reverse mortgage, wills, social security tural skin care, nutrition, osteoporosis, women's health, weight loss, skin care, skin care products, sleep disorder FiftyandFurthermore pays tribute to Liviu Librescu, the Virginia Tech professor deemed a hero after using his own body to block the door where the gunman stood so that his students could escape herself as “Frazier with better legs and better hair!” crippling effect of one kind or another. I try to remain positive, but that is so hard to do.ure. Had to give you some history.. excitement. I aimed to be energized enough to