TUCSON — There is a growing memorial sitting just outside of the building where Professor Thomas Meixner was shot and killed.
Meixner was the head of the Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences Department at the University of Arizona.
After talking to students, faculty, and even colleagues outside of the university, we learned Professor Meixner’s impact extended far beyond the UArizona community.
Loved ones and friends, like Shela McFarlin, tell ABC15 this is an unimaginable loss, not just to the school but to Arizona as a whole.
“Oh my God. This cannot be. Someone could not have come in and shot Tom Meixner. It couldn't have happened, but it did,” McFarlin said.
For McFarlin, Professor Meixner was more than a colleague — he was a friend.
“It was a pleasure to be around Tom, always. No one can believe that in a moment life is snuffed out, and especially not one of the good guys,” she added.
She and Meixner were both a part of the Cienega Watershed Partnership, a nonprofit that helps preserve the watershed’s landscapes and natural and cultural resources when she finished serving her term as chair.
“Tom took over. He’s been on the Board...this would be nine years in 2023,” McFarlin told ABC15.
The news of his passing shocked her to her core.
“It broke me up. I just immediately was flooded with emotions and tears. All of those kinds of little moments come flooding back to you so it…it’s hard to move forward,” she said.
McFarlin says this is a huge loss for the community, the University of Arizona, and, given Meixner was the head of the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences there, it’s also a huge loss for Arizona.
“We’re at a crisis…a water crisis in Arizona right now with the Colorado River and Tom has been dealing with the issues of water quantity quality for a long time,” she said.
It’s a blow for the effort to address Arizona's water crisis, but also a more personal tragedy for students who go here.
John Bruchhagen says he was in the building next door when he heard several gunshots.
“Obviously it has affected a lot of people. He probably knew a lot of students, impacted a lot of lives out here, so I just wanted to give my thoughts and prayers to the family and students and the faculty,” Bruchhagen told ABC15.
Kennedy Van Norman did her undergraduate studies at UArizona and is now getting her master’s degree there.
She says she never imagined something like this would happen so close to home.
“It’s just really devastating that this happened, so I just dropped off flowers. I didn’t know the professor well at all but coming together as a community at this point is very important,” said Van Norman.
After the tragic shooting, almost everyone we talked to was concerned about campus safety and had a few other concerns too.
“What are we doing with guns and mental health?” said McFarlin.
Professor Meixner’s family sent out the following statement following his passing:
There are no words. We can try to put it into writing, but there will never be words to describe this crushing loss. Thomas Meixner was an incredible son, brother, husband, father, uncle, colleague and friend. He loved his family, friends, coworkers, the University of Arizona and the greater Tucson community. He always focused on helping others in all he did. The loss of Tom has left a giant emptiness in our hearts. He was a great man, a deeply faith-filled and devoted husband and father. He was passionate about Hydrology, and one of the last acts he performed on this earth was to teach a class. He described his work as “making the world better through biogeochemistry,” but to us, he was trying to save the world’s most precious resource. He recently retweeted the following quote, “Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for.” Tom certainly lived this. He will be forever loved and missed by so many who knew him.
