ST. MARYS – A local family is struggling to come to grips with
what happened on Monday during a massacre at Virginia Tech that
claimed the lives of 33 people, including the gunman.

Among the victims was Jeremy Herbstritt of Bellefonte, who was a
graduate student at Virginia Tech. His parents, Mike and Peggy
Herbstritt are St. Marys natives; his grandparents, Thomas and Mary
Herbstritt, currently live there.

On Wednesday, Thomas and Mary Herbstritt talked to The Era about
the how the family is trying to cope with the loss.

“We couldn’t talk to our boy Mike all day because he felt so
bad,” Thomas Herbstritt said. “Last night, they finally went down
to Penn State and took an airplane to Virginia Tech. Now they have
to be down there to identify their son.”

Thomas Herbstritt said services for Jeremy, 27, won’t likely be
held for a while, adding he was involved with biochemistry and
civil engineering at Virginia Tech, doing an internship and
teaching there and was an associate professor at the school.

” … It was hard because we couldn’t get a hold of him,” Thomas
Herbstritt said, adding Jeremy’s sister, Jennifer, was running in
the Boston Marathon. “We heard there was a shooting down at
Virginia Tech. I called our daughter to try and get Michael and
Margaret up in Boston.

“They were trying to reach him and said ‘His cell phone rings,
but nobody answers.’ We kept trying all day and never heard nothing
until 12:30 a.m. Their grandmother, Mary Meyer, called up. She said
that Jeremy wasn’t around no more, he left us. We didn’t sleep all
night.”

Meanwhile, Dale Moore, a Spring Township (Centre County) police
officer and family friend, was notified of the death and went to
the house to pay his respects to the family, and be with Joseph,
18, who had stayed home to attend classes at Penn State.

A neighbor, who is a doctor, called down to the college and
explained that Joseph’s parents were in Boston and the boy was home
alone.

“They don’t like to make notifications over the phone, but they
finally called the dad,” Moore said. “Jenny had run in the marathon
and was dehydrated and had to go to the hospital to get some fluids
in her.”

A doctor had contacted the police department about Jeremy’s
death.

Then, once the news broke about Jeremy’s death the next day,
Moore and a female officer went to the Herbstritt house to keep
people away from the family and to field calls. Moore said that
Larry King and Katie Couric, among others, had phoned that day. His
parents were later interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s “The
Situation Room” on Wednesday afternoon.

Moore said police were ready to take the family to Virginia,
rather than have them drive, but they ended up going by plane.

“He was a good boy … always energetic,” Thomas Herbstritt said.
“(He) was serious in his school work and (had) a nice personality.
When he talked, he always had a smile on his face. He was well
liked by his classmates.”

Thomas Herbstritt said Jeremy liked working on a lot of things
on the farm, including fixing equipment.

“He liked his studies … and (was) well versed in them. As a
matter of fact, that’s all he’s done all his life … he had books in
front of him.”

“He treated people with dignity and respected people around
him,” Mary Herbstritt said.

According to his grandfather, during his spare time, Jeremy
raised apple trees and performed experimental gardening and farming
with his father in Bellefonte.

“He milked neighbor’s cows before school and at night,” Thomas
Herbstritt said. “He loved hunting and fishing and a lot of skiing
and kayaking. He ran cross country and marathons.”

Moore said the last time he saw Jeremy was at Thanksgiving, when
they were helping serve dinner to the needy. Each year, the Knights
of Columbus put on the free dinner and Moore’s family, as well as
the Herbstritts, participate.

“Jeremy was a good kid,” Moore said, adding he also did
experimental work on the environment.

“He and several other students took kayak and were studying at
the Blue Ridge Mountains while at Virginia Tech,” Moore said. “He
was (the) first one to find the West Nile virus in the mosquito
there.”

Thomas Herbstritt remembered his grandson liked being around
people and to joke around. However, his grandfather said over the
last two years he became serious, matured more and had his mind on
his studies.

“He wanted to work on the environment, that’s why he was in
civil engineer,” Thomas Herbstritt said. “He came up and helped me
on my garden last year and he planted 25 apple trees for me. He was
going to stake out them for me this year so they could grow
straight, but he won’t be able to do it for me no more.

“We gotta take it. We gotta keep going. I am proud of him and I
always will be.”