Philadelphia, PA – A Chestnut Hill College professor committed suicide Wednesday afternoon by jumping off a second-story balcony inside the school. On Wednesday*afternoon, 71-year-old Rudolf Alexandrov was to teach Mathematics for Business as he did every Monday and Wednesday. But instead of walking into his classroom*inside St. Joseph’s Hall, he stepped over the hall’s second-floor railing overlooking the veranda. Staff and security were alerted when he was seen standing inside the railing and tried to talk him out of doing anything drastic, but he wouldn’t respond to them. He then killed himself by diving headfirst off the balcony, falling approximately 30-feet to the marble floor below. Alexandrov had a history of depression and had talked about harming himself before. The previous Friday his wife, who also teaches at the college, filed a missing person report on he husband who was found later walking around the neighborhood. The college released a statement on its website that attempted to clarify some earlier, incorrect reports. “The College continues to mourn the loss of Rudolf Alexandrov, an adjunct professor of mathematics, who committed suicide inside the Rotunda on Wednesday, August 3rd,” the statement read. “Contrary to published reports that Mr. Alexandrov ended his life “in front of [his] class” and his wife, who also teaches at the College, the facts make it clear that the incident did not take place in the classroom but in a public area of the building and was witnessed by only a handful of staff and perhaps one or two students.” The college is offering counseling to those who witnessed the incident while the*staff is helping with funeral arrangements.*Memorial services are scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9, at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral. That is not a picture of Alexandrov, btw. I couldn’t find one. That’s a picture of*Prof. Bernstein from 1957′s CURSE OF*FRANKENSTEIN, who suffered a similar fate at the hands of Peter Cushing and is always the first thing I think of whenever anyone falls headfirst.
This article is from The Dreamin' Demon, the Internet's self-appointed buzzkill.


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