Picture of  Jeremy Herbstritt

Lives Lost

Jeremy Herbstritt, 27, of Bellefonte, Pa. A graduate student in engineering, he had two undergraduate degrees from Penn State, one in biochemistry and molecular biology from 2003, and another in civil engineering from 2006.

Herbstritt was in his second semester pursuing a master’s degree in civil engineering at Virginia Tech. He was deeply loyal to Penn State, where he completed his undergraduate degree.

Monday morning, a gunman shot and killed him while he worked as a teaching assistant in Norris Hall.

He grew up on a small farm just outside the central Pennsylvania borough of Bellefonte, where his father, Michael, raised steer and sheep.

His career goal was to be a civil engineer, and he talked of getting into environmental work after school.

“He liked to work on machinery, take a lot of stuff apart and fixed it,” said the victim’s grandfather Thomas Herbstritt, 77, of St. Marys. “He was a studious kid.”

"He was a wonderful student and person, and will be greatly missed," Amy Sten wrote, identifying herself as a former teacher of Herbstritt's.