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Matt La Porte

Matt La PorteTuesday night, Monsignor James F. Bouffard stood in the kitchen at Sacred Heart Parish in Haworth, N.J., and let out a heavy sigh.

"I'm staring at my lunch that’s still sitting on the counter in the kitchen," he said in a telephone interview. "Yeah, it’s been a long day." Bouffard found out that morning that one of his parishioners, Matt La Porte, 20, died in Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech.

Bouffard spent considerable time Tuesday with La Porte’s parents, Joseph and Barbara, and his younger sister, Priscilla.

"They’re doing as best as can be expected," he said. ""They’re absolutely devastated, but to their credit, they’re pointing no fingers at the school or anyone. They’re just trying to deal with their grief."

La Porte went to private schools from the seventh grade on, and he graduated in 2005 from Carson Long Military Institute, a private prep school in New Bloomfield, Pa., before enrolling at Virginia Tech. He was a freshman.

Bouffard said La Porte enjoyed the military regimen, kept his hair in a crew cut for years and made it a point to be particularly respectful, especially to adults.

In online postings, La Porte said he enjoyed lifting weights and running and was a fan of Van Halen and AC/DC.

Priscilla is a high school senior who sings in the Sacred Heart choir.

"Matt was kind of quiet, but really, the whole family kind of is," Bouffard said. "Just a good kid. Just a really good kid — that will be my memory of him."

— Joe Macenka, Media General News Service

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