Grief, Optimism Mix at Service for 3 Slain Professors

In a memorial service Tuesday that combined sorrow and hope, hundreds of students, faculty and others at San Diego State said farewell to three engineering professors gunned down on campus Aug. 15 and vowed not to let “a mindless act of violence” shatter the university.

Stephen L. Weber, president of San Diego State, praised professors Chen Liang, Costas Lyrintzis and Preston Lowrey III for living lives “committed to advancing the human ascent.”

“They were among the best and strongest strands of our human rope,” Weber told the campus assemblage at the Open Air Theatre.

A common theme among the speakers was that despite the horror of the killings, the campus remains dedicated to teaching, research and public service.

“This is not the time to be fearful, “ said Pieter Frick, dean of the college of engineering. “The wounds of the last couple of weeks are deep but will heal. This is a great university. This is a safe university.”

Tracy Arnold, a member of the technical staff in the engineering department, said many staffers were so traumatized that they were reluctant to reenter the laboratory where the killings took place. Staff members would reenter the lab for the first time only when accompanied by a colleague, she said.

“We will not sit back and let this tragedy strike us down,” said Arnold. “We will not forget. We will carry on the work. We will carry on the light.”

The three slain professors were remembered as young men who loved teaching and research and delighted in the success of others.

Subrata Bhattacharjee, professor of mechanical engineering, said of Lowrey, “He was bullish on people’s goodness. How can we disappoint him?”

James Burns, professor of mechanical engineering, said Liang combined both a self-effacing manner and “an impatience to get to the answer” of scientific questions.

Allen Plotkin, professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics, called Lyrintzis “the epitome of the researcher-scholar.”

Liang, 32, a native of China, was an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and had been on the faculty since 1994. Lyrintzis, 36, a native of Greece, was an associate professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics and a faculty member since 1987. Lowrey, 44, was an associate professor of mechanical engineering, had been on the faculty since 1986 and was set to become the engineering department chairman.

Frederick Martin Davidson allegedly shot the three to death just as a session devoted to their critique of his master’s thesis was beginning.

According to police, the 36-year-old Davidson walked calmly to a first-aid kit hanging on the wall, removed a 9-millimeter pistol he had hidden there hours earlier and killed the three.

Davidson has pleaded innocent to three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances, a charge that could bring the death penalty. His defense attorney, Kate Coyne, said he suffers from untreated mental illness.