Dec 1, 2008 5:51 pm US/Eastern
Va. Mumbai Attack Victims Remembered
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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Alan Scherr and his 13-year-old daughter, Naomi, were reportedly killed in the assaults at a spiritual retreat in Mumbai, India, the Virginia-based Synchronicity Foundation revealed Nov. 28, 2009.
CBS
When terrorist gunmen killed more than 172 people in Mumbai last week, six Americans were killed. One of them was a former teacher at Loyola College here in Baltimore.
Derek Valcourt has more on remembrances of Alan Scherr.
Scherr taught photography classes at Loyola and at the University of Maryland, touching hundreds of lives along the way.
He and his 13-year-old daughter Naomi were having dinner at the Oberoi Hotel when gunmen stormed the building, shooting them both. He died in India, but Scherr was raised in the Baltimore area.
"A senseless murder occurs on the other side of the world and it feels like it occurred in our own backyard," said Schlomo Porter, Etz Chaim director.
At Etz Chaim Center Sunday night, there was a standing room only memorial with Scherr's sister, mother and brother Mark who expressed fond memories of his brother and niece.
"They went on this once in a lifetime trip and it has become the trip of their lifetime. They are still on it, they are just seeing it from a different perspective," Mark Scherr said.
Scherr and his daughter were on a two-week spiritual pilgrimage in India when the attacks happened. Kia Scherr, wife and mother, did not go on the trip; she went to visit relatives in Florida.
Naomi was homeschooled. Her family recalls her as an extremely bright and happy girl.
"And on her last visit just before her trip to India, she was beaming with enthusiasm about the Twilight book series she was reading, her visit to the boarding school she was determined to attend and of course her trip to India with her father," Mark Scherr said.
Scherr was an accomplished photographer, inspired as a boy by Ansel Adams. For years, he shared his knowledge with students teaching photography classes at Loyola College, where colleagues remember him fondly.
"He cared about the betterment of each person--not only each student, but all his colleagues as well, so I think it affected people here very deeply because he was a good guy," said Fran Fulton.
Arrangements are being made to bring their bodies back to the United States and plans are being made for a memorial service.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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