Remembering Austin Cloyd
Ellen Biltz, CT Senior Reporter
Thursday, April 19 2007
Austin Cloyd was always smiling. Her friends saw her as a happy, go-lucky girl.
Monday's shootings left Cloyd dead, one of the victims shot by Cho Seung Hui in the French class held in Norris Hall.
"We all have our little angels and Austin's definitely ours," said Danielle Gully, a freshman at New River Community College and one of Cloyd's friends from high school.
Her senior year, Cloyd transferred to Blacksburg High School, where she quickly made friends.
Talmadge Flinchum, a freshman business major at Bridgewater College also graduated from Blacksburg with Cloyd last spring and said she may have seemed shy at first, but she was always easy to talk to and kind to everyone.
"She was one of those people that was always reliable. You knew you could always count on her," Flinchum said.
Gully said she was liked by everyone she met.
"I remember the first night I met her. We went out to dinner with a group of friends and she came along. She fit right in with us and it was like she'd known us forever," she said.
Gully said aside from Cloyd's friendly personality, she will also be remembered for her intelligence. A freshman international studies and French double major, Cloyd was fluent in French, was a member of multiple honor societies in high school and graduated with honors. She also played for the varsity basketball team and Gully said all of her teammates had come to the vigil Tuesday night in remembrance.
Cloyd was the daughter of Virginia Tech professor Bryan Cloyd. Cloyd taught within the Accounting and Information Systems major in the Pamplin School of Business.
Flinchum and Gully said the shootings on Monday were extremely hard, not only on Virginia Tech, but the whole Blacksburg community.
"People hear about it and tell us how it hits so close to home, but for us, this is home," said Gully who grew up down the street from Flinchum.
The friends said the death is sinking in with them, but the whole experience still seams ultimately surreal.
"Everything is just so unbelievable. I've been getting calls from across the nation from people just checking in," Flinchum said.
Gully said it took some time for them to realize they had lost a friend in the shooting. Monday night, she and Flinchum had exchanged phone calls when they heard she was missing and again when they heard she was in critical condition.
"I found out (she died) right after the convocation. I went to give a friend a hug and they said, Īdid you hear about Austin?' And I said I'd heard she was hurt and then I found out she had actually died. I couldn't even believe it at first. I'd never had a friend die before," Gully said.
Flinchum said many of their friends returned from their first years of college to spend the week at home and mourn the death of their friend together.
"It's sad to have to come back for something like this," he said.