Indian professor, shot in class, never wanted to leave campus

Professor Gobichettypalayam Vasudevan Loganathan, 53, loved his job at Virginia Tech so much that he had told his wife once that if he died in the US, he should be buried in the campus.

Professor Gobichettypalayam Vasudevan Loganathan, 53, loved his job at Virginia Tech so much that he had told his wife once that if he died in the US, he should be buried in the campus.

On Tuesday, the professor of civil and environmental engineering left home earlier than usual and was teaching a class of about 35 students when the gunman came. The government school student from rural Tamil Nadu who went on to become an award-winning teacher at Virginia Tech was among the 33 killed.

When his family here called his wife Usha this morning, she told them about his wish. “My husband had dedicated his heart and soul to his students and wanted to be close to the institute even after his death,” Usha said.

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As Usha (46), and her two daughters, Uma (21) and Abhirami (12), struggled to cope with the horror and anguish at Blacksburg, Loganathan’s grieving parents and brothers quietly prepared for the traumatic journey to the US to conduct his last rites.

But at least five persons in the nine-member group, including Loganathan’s father G K Vasudevan (78), mother Kannammal (71) and brother, Sengottavalavan, do not even possess passports. Those who have are leaving for Chennai tomorrow morning to proceed to the US.

“We are making sure that all of them are issued Tatkal passports immediately and visa clearances obtained as soon as possible,” Erode Collector T Udayachandran said.

The family members had little time to grieve as they rushed around the district collectorate with documents required for passports. They hope to take a flight to the US tomorrow.

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Meanwhile, Usha’s family, including her father V Ramakrishnan, a lawyer, set out from Thane this afternoon, to join Loganathan’s family. “He was an excellent engineer, a loving husband for my daughter, an excellent son-in-law and above all, a great person¿ he was unassuming despite being a professor in such a reputed institute, very simple and modest,” Ramakrishnan told The Indian Express.

In Gobichettypalayam, about 350 km west of Chennai, where his parents live along with his two brothers and their families, relatives and friends recalled the village boy who made it big.

After completing his SSLC from a government school in Modakurichi near Coimbatore, Loganathan did his B Tech at the reputed P S G Engineering College in Coimbatore. He later completed his MTech at IIT Kanpur and left for the US to do a PhD in Hydraulics and Systems Engineering at Ohio University. He joined Virginia Tech as an assistant professor in 1979 and became professor in civil and environmental engineering in 1982.

He lived about half-hour drive from the institute. His elder daughter, Uma, is a final year student of bio-medical engineering at the Virginia University and Abhirami is in the Seventh Grade.

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Dr. William Knocke, head of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, has been quoted on Virginia Tech as saying: “Dr. Loganathan is truly one of the most outstanding classroom educators within the College of Engineering — (he) combines a high degree of organization in the classroom, expert knowledge of the subject matter, and a passion for student success into a classroom experience.” The last time Loganathan called home was on Sunday, to wish the family on the Tamil New Year.

Today, an early morning call from a friend woke up Palanivel, his brother who works as an assistant engineer in the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board. “I got news of the shoot-out around 3 am from a friend. He had watched the World Cup cricket match and had been surfing the Net,” said Palanivel.

The family got through to Usha around 4.30 am. She confirmed their worst fears — she had just identified her husband’s body.