Lives of Virginia Tech victims remembered

A day after the deadly shootings atVirginia Tech university, the names and faces of some of the 32 victims began to emerge.

Thousands gathered on the campus in the town of Blacksburg on Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil, hours after U.S. President George W. Bush spoke at an afternoon memorial service.

Theuniversity has an international reputation, and therefore the victimscame from various areas.

One of them, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, was from Canada. The former Montreal resident was teaching French at Virginia Tech at the time of the shootings Monday, police confirmed.

The names of the other victims reported so far by the U.S. media include:

• Ross Abdallah Alameddine, 20, of Saugus, Mass.
• Emily Jane Hilscher, 19, of Woodville, Va., veterinary science student.
• Ryan Clark, 22, of Martinez, Ga., biology and English major.
• Daniel Perez Cueva, 21.
• Liviu Librescu, 76, engineering science and mathematics lecturer.
• Kevin Granata, engineering science and mechanics professor.
• G.V. Loganathan, 51, civil and environmental engineering professor.
• Matthew La Porte, 20, a first-year student from Dumont, N.J.
• Juan Ramon Ortiz, 26, a graduate student in engineering from Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
• Caitlin Hammaren, 19, a second-year student majoring in French, international studies.
• Reema J. Samaha, 18, a first-year student from Centreville, Va.
• Mary Karen Read,19, of Annandale, Va.
• Daniel O'Neil, 22
• Jeremy Herbstritt, 27, of Bellefonte, Pa.

It is believed Hilscher and Clark were the first two students killed, in a shooting at one of the school dormitories two hours before dozens of others were gunned down at the opposite end of the sprawling campus.

Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, reportedly saved the lives of his students by blocking the doorway from the gunman while he ordered them to leave.

Granata wasone of the top biomechanics researchers in the country andspent much of time studying cerebral palsy.

Loganathan, who worked in the engineering department, came from India and won many awards for his teaching in Virginia. He spent a great deal of time with undergraduate students, includingadvising them.

Clark, 22, known as Stack to his friends, wasasenior from Georgia who majored in biology and English. He wasa top student with a 4.0 grade point average.

Alameddine, who majored in English and French, was described by his friends as intelligent, funny and easygoing. La Porte was on an air-force scholarship to study political science and French.