Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has asked President Bush to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously to a university faculty member who died while trying to physically prevent gunman Seung-Hui Cho from entering his classroom during the April massacre there.

According to the Associated Press, Liviu Librescu was "a 76-year-old aeronautics engineer and lecturer" who had worked for the university for 20 year. He was a native of Romania and a Holocaust survivor. Librescu was one of five faculty member who died in the shooting spree that claimed 32 victims on campus.




The Romanian government has already awarded Librescu that country's highest medal posthumously for his scientific accomplishments and heroism.

Librescu has been commemorated in a number of locations in the blogosphere. Some of those blog posts date to shortly after the shootings.