Isidor and Liviu Librescu collection

Liviu Librescu was born in Ploesti, Romania on August 18, 1930, the only child of Isidor and Mina Finkelstein Librescu. In 1941, the family was moved into the Focsani ghetto. Isidor was rounded up and taken to a labor camp for several months before being transported to a concentration camp in Transnistria. At age 10, Liviu had to work to support himself and his mother, as she was unhealthy and not able to work. This continued until 1945 when Isidor returned home after the war. After Isidor’s return, the Librescus returned to Ploesti, and Liviu graduated high school and studied aeronautical engineering at university, receiving his Ph.D. He met Marilena Semian, the daughter of a friend of his father Isidor. They married in April 1966, and had two sons. In 1978, with the intervention of Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Nicolae Ceauşescu let the Librescu family leave the country and they immigrated to Israel. The family settled in Ra'anana where Liviu was a professor at Tel Aviv University, and Marilena practiced dentistry. In 1986, the family moved to Blacksburg, Virginia where Liviu went on sabbatical to teach at Virginia Tech University. Tragically, Liviu was killed on April 16, 2007 during the massacre at Virginia Tech when he blocked the door of his classroom in Norris Hall with his body, preventing the gunman from entering his classroom, and saving the lives of his students.