UPDATE: Chestnut Hill College professor commits suicide on campus

Posted 8/5/11

[caption id="attachment_7962" align="alignleft" width="285" caption="The rotunda in St. Joseph's Hall"] [/caption] by Jennifer Katz Rudolf Alexandrov, 71, an adjunct mathematics professor …

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UPDATE: Chestnut Hill College professor commits suicide on campus

Posted

[caption id="attachment_7962" align="alignleft" width="285" caption="The rotunda in St. Joseph's Hall"][/caption]

by Jennifer Katz

Rudolf Alexandrov, 71, an adjunct mathematics professor committed suicide at Chestnut Hill College yesterday jumping approximately 30 feet from the second-floor balcony in the rotunda of St. Joseph’s Hall.

Police said two of the professor’s students encountered Alexandrov standing on the balcony ledge of the second floor. The students, 37 and 33, engaged him in conversation briefly. He reportedly made a statement, which has not been released, and jumped head first to the marble floor 30 to 40 feet below.

Alexandrov was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:25 p.m. He had suffered major head trauma, said police.

College spokesperson Kathleen Spigelmyer contradicted initial reports that Alexandrov was conducting class at the time of his suicide. She told the Inquirer there were only four witnesses that the college was aware of: three students and a security guard.

The college has made professional counselors available to speak with any member of the College community who wishes to do so.

The college released the following statement: “President Carol Jean Vale, SSJ, Ph.D., and the entire Chestnut Hill College community wish to express our deepest sympathy to the family of adjunct professor Rudolf Alexandrov who died in a fall at the College on August 3. We offer our prayers and condolences to all Alexandrov family members and friends at this time of great sorrow.”

-Jennifer Katz

Related: Witness recalls events of college professor's suicide

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