Jocelyne Couture-Nowak

Jocelyne Couture-Nowak
Couture-Nowak was a French instructor at Virginia Tech and was instrumental in the push to create the first French school in Truro, Nova Scotia, where she lived in the 1990s with her husband -- Jerzy Nowak -- who is the head of the horticulture department at Virginia Tech.

Jerzy Nowak said the family is mourning but declined to talk more.

Richard Landry, a spokesman with the francophone school board in Nova Scotia, said Couture-Nowak had two girls.

According to Landry, Couture-Nowak obtained her degree at the teacher's college in Truro in 1989. She taught at a community college and also was a substitute teacher.

A student who identified herself as DeAnne Leigh Pelchat wrote of her gratitude to Couture-Nowak on one Web site. Pelchat wrote in French "You'll always have a place in my heart."