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Hundreds gather to mourn brilliant student, good friend
Tuesday, March 07, 2000 By Cindi Lash, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
As a student, he was a prodigy who mastered tough courses with a grin on his face.
As an investor, he was a wizard with the instinctive gift for picking a money-making winner and the charisma to persuade others to follow.
Yet, as they paid tribute yesterday to the life of Emil Sanielevici, classmates, relatives and instructors of the slain University of Pittsburgh student said they most admired his ability to make a friend of everyone he met.
"You could tell his future was limitless, that he'd go as far as he wanted to go," classmate Derek Hohman said during a memorial service in Heinz Memorial Chapel on the University of Pittsburgh campus.
"But I can never remember one time he was in a bad mood or didn't want to be around people," Hohman said, his voice quavering. "When I think of him, I will remember how happy he always was, and how he was with people. His smile will remain with us."
Sanielevici, 20, of Greenfield, was the last of five people to be shot Wednesday and the third to die after a gunman's shooting spree in Wilkinsburg. He suffered head and brain injuries and died Thursday at UPMC Presbyterian.
A junior physics major at Pitt, Sanielevici was a beloved son, brother and grandson who was born in Romania and spent much of his life in Canada before moving to Pittsburgh in 1995 with his father and grandmother. In the past five years, he'd also become part of larger families whose members claimed him as their own yesterday.
Classmates, instructors and bosses who'd supervised his work as a student consultant at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center in Oakland all spoke of the valued role he'd played in their particular circles.
Sanielevici's brother, Alex, referred to more than 300 postings placed since Wednesday on an Internet message board where Sanielevici had often touted his favorite stock, Osicom. In emotional postings, Osicom stockholders told of how Sanielevici led their online community and buoyed them until the stock's price began to rise.
"When I heard [of Sanielevici's shooting], one of the first things I did was to call my former wife. I described to the mother of my children the long list of Emil's favorable traits," said Bob Stock, associate director of the supercomputing center.
"I told her, 'He was like our son.' He was a son many parents would have been proud of, and we will miss him."
As speakers took their turns behind a lectern in the massive Gothic chapel, about 500 mourners crammed its wooden pews and spilled into its balcony. Flanked by flowers and burning candles, a framed photograph of Sanielevici was on the altar.
The crowd was diverse, with black, whites, Asians and Indians mingling shoulder to shoulder in silent testament to Sanielevici's knack for making friends. A Jewish man in yarmulke and prayer shawl bowed his head alongside a college student in miniskirt and nose ring.
Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg and other university officials attended, as did Wilkinsburg Mayor Wilbert Young. Mourners wiped tears while an organist played Samuel Barber's haunting "Adagio for Strings" and other classical selections chosen by Sanielevici's family.
But there was laughter, too, when Sanielevici's supervisor at the supercomputing center, Ken Hackworth, spoke of his always untucked shirt, his drooping, beltless pants and his love for souped-up cars.
Sanielevici's parents, Sergiu and Michaela Sanielevici, also told of their love for their son and their wonder at the size of the crowd and the flood of messages from strangers whose lives had been touched by him.
"I was amazed to discover he was involved in so many things. I am so proud of him," his mother said. "It is true I did not always appreciate him as much as I should and [scolded] about leaving his hat on or not cleaning his room.
"I wish I had told him more how much I love him."
Sanielevici's organs were donated and his remains cremated. Plans to establish a scholarship in his name are under way at Pitt.
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