Disbelief was the prevailing emotion yesterday among members of the Dartmouth faculty reacting to Saturday's double murder of Susanne and Half Zantop.
Professors across the spectrum of departments and with varying levels of acquaintance with the deceased echoed each other in describing their reactions, using words like "stunned," "horrified" and "shocked" again and again.
"The sudden loss is so shocking and the means by which we have lost them is even more shocking," said Jim Aronson, Half's close friend and departmental colleague in earth sciences. "Neither my wife or I slept at all last night."
"I was devastated, like so many other people," said history professor Annelise Orleck, another close friend of the couple. "It's a tight community and a huge hole has been ripped in it."
"The shock was like a wave of nausea," professor of classics Edward Bradley said.
The fact of the Zantops' deaths seemed to be sinking in only very slowly for many as, when speaking to The Dartmouth, a number of faculty members referred to their deceased colleagues in the present tense.
Earth sciences professor Gary Johnson he said he didn't really believe what he was hearing right away when he received a call from the chair of his department informing him of the tragedy.
"You hear those words but you don't quite register what they mean, even though you may talk about it for four or five minutes," he said.
"I think this is just terrible. It's just so stunning because nothing like that happens up here," art history professor Joy Kenseth said. "They were very, very nice people, I can't even imagine who would want to do something like this to them."
Many faculty who spoke with The Dartmouth expressed similar opinions, noting Hanover's rural, quiet nature.
"I was horrified, this is supposed to be a sleepy rural community in New Hampshire," math department chair Dana Williams said of his reaction to news of the double murder.
"Things like this aren't supposed to happen, especially not to nice and generous people like the Zantops," he continued.
"We live in an area where people don't lock their doors. You can't imagine a robbery ... but yet you can't possibly imagine that anybody who knew them could do this," Aronson said.
At least one faculty member expressed alarm at the fact that the murders were committed by a third party who has not yet been apprehended.
"That frightens me because the person might still be on the loose" English professor Cynthia Huntington said of the police determination that the Zantops died in a double homicide.
Most other faculty, however, said that the murders have not affected their image of the Hanover area as unusually safe.
"It's still a rural community, and I'm sure when the details of this are known we'll be even more horrified by the meaninglessness of it all," Williams said. "This kind of thing could happen anywhere."
Faculty members said that when they return to work today, they'll be thinking of their colleagues, but the world -- and the term -- will go on. But those gone before will not be forgotten.
"I think we will keep on hugging each other and trying to make sense of this incomprehensible event ... but there's not really any way to make sense of it," Orleck said. "[So] we will remember them and memorialize them and we will miss them."
Members of the Zantops' departments -- Susanne was the chair of German studies and Half was a professor of earth sciences -- were notified by phone late Saturday night of their colleagues' deaths.
Other members of the faculty learned of the tragedy in a more haphazard manner, through local and national news reports, BlitzMail and other means.
"At this point, people are going to be numb and slowly but surely it's going to hit them," Director of the Faculty/Employee Assistance Program James Platt said. "We want to make sure we can normalize things for them because it's going to be a real roller coaster."
Platt said there is some concern that faculty will feel a sense of conflict in dealing with their pain and loss in this situation as they also feel a need to serve as caretakers and role models for students.
Counselors will be sitting down with members of the Zantops' departments this morning and will be available throughout the week to help all College employees.
