Relatives of VA Tech victim live in Valley

By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Jeremy Herbstritt wasn't supposed to be at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va., on Monday.
The civil engineering graduate student, a runner who has participated in marathons and other distance events, had, at one point, planned to travel to Boston to run in the annual Boston Marathon that day with his sister, Jennifer.
But he changed his mind and decided to stay in Virginia, said his aunt and godmother, Mary Ellen Pellegrini of Girard, a free-lance writer who has been a correspondent for The Vindicator.
His change in plans cost him his life.
Herbstritt, 27, was one of 32 students and faculty killed Monday morning by a gunman at Virginia Tech. Authorities told Herbstritt's family that he died instantly when he was shot in a second-floor engineering room in Norris Hall.
Authorities said the gunman took his own life a short time later.
Herbstritt's parents, Mike and Peg, were in Boston with Jennifer and didn't known anything was amiss until they got a telephone call in midafternoon from his girlfriend, Alexis, telling them she was unable to reach him, Pellegrini said.
Worries mount
Alexis was able to learn that Herbstritt's car was parked at Norris Hall, the engineering building, and family members left numerous messages on his cell phone all day.
"We all became very concerned about 6 Monday evening when Jeremy hadn't returned anyone's call and his parents had called all the hospitals only to be told there was no patient named Jeremy Herbstritt," Pellegrini said.
His parents were stranded in Boston by rain, sleet and snow, she said, adding that they received a call there from the Virginia State Police around midnight telling them their son had been killed.
Two of Pellegrini's children, Heather Belgin and Vince Pellegrini, work at Youngstown State University, Belgin as coordinator of alumni relations, and Vince Pellegrini as a financial aid counselor.
Both remember their cousin as a fun-loving, gregarious guy.
"He was such a fun person to be around," Belgin said, noting that their extended family is very close, and Herbstritt was always at the center of activity when the family gathered.
"He would go out of his way to help anyone," she said.
"I was rather close to him," Vince Pellegrini said, adding that he would see Jeremy four or five times a year.
He last spoke with him in February when Herbstritt called to invite him to Virginia Tech to see a basketball game, a game he was unable to attend, Pellegrini recalled.
Vince Pellegrini said he was following reports of the shooting at Virginia Tech on Monday morning and, around 10:30 a.m., noticed that news reports said there were more than 20 deaths.
"I got kind of worried," he said, deciding to send Herbstritt a cell phone text message asking if he was OK.
He never got a response.
Killings make no sense
"I look at it as just a senseless act," Vince Pellegrini said of the shootings.
"It's just so senseless, so hard to comprehend," Belgin said. All of those killed "had so much to give the world."
Herbstritt had such a great future ahead of him, Vince Pellegrini added.
He was in his last semester as a graduate student and had a research project lined up for the summer, Belgin said, adding that he was excited about starting his career.
Herbstritt, whose hometown is Bellefonte, Pa., was "one of those kids who had a hard time finding his direction in life," Mary Ellen Pellegrini said. However, since enrolling at Virginia Tech in June 2006, he seemed really happy, she said.
"He liked what he was studying, was excited about his future, had met a really nice girl and for the first time was really focused," she said. "He was a great storyteller and a lot of fun to be around. He planned to get into environmental work after graduation and would have made a positive contribution had he been given the chance."
He held two undergraduate degrees from Penn State University, one in biochemistry and molecular biology in 2003 and a second in civil engineering in 2006. Besides Jennifer, he has two other younger siblings, Joe and Stephanie, of Bellefonte.
Herbstritt's class in Norris Hall was next to the German class where many students were killed, Mary Ellen Pellegrini said.
No details
"None of us know what happened in that classroom, but we all agree that if there had been time to react, Jeremy would be one to step forward and try to disarm the shooter somehow," she said.
The state police told Herbstritt's dad he died instantly but the family has no other details at this time, she said.
"When the shooting occurred, Jeremy and all the other students who were killed on Monday were doing what all of us are supposed to value. They were getting an education so they could be productive members of society. Now they're all gone. I wake up in the morning and think, 'This can't be real. It can't be happening.' But it is," Mary Ellen Pellegrini said.
His parents last talked to Herbstritt on Sunday, and he was in good spirits, happy about a grant he had just received to help with expenses for the summer term, she said.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete, but services likely will be held in Bellefonte, she said.
gwin@vindy.com