‘Overwhelmed and humbled’: 58 years after he helped student wounded by UT sniper, reflections on a thank-you letter

Paul Eichelberger was near campus when he heard about the UT Tower shooting and helped get a fellow student out of the street and into an ambulance.

By Laura RiceAugust 1, 2024 3:59 pm,

Paul Eichelberger was a journalism student at the University of Texas at Austin on Aug. 1, 1966, the day Charles Whitman began shooting people from the UT Tower.

He was at a nearby tea shop on the Drag when a woman came in with news of the shooting. As he went to the door and looked up the street, he saw another student on the ground unconscious.

“He wasn’t moving, so I knew he was seriously injured,” Eichelberger said. “I sort of thought, ‘I can’t let him lay there on that hot concrete.’”

Eichelberger made his way out to the student, got him to a nearby store and assisted on the ambulance ride to the hospital. As he previously shared with Texas Standard, he then stayed at the hospital to help with other incoming patients.

“When I was unloading ambulances, one of the nurses came out and said, you know, ‘that young man that came in, you were in his ambulance, he just passed away,’” Eichelberger said.

Now, Eichelberger is sharing a letter he received from the slain student’s mother – a letter he’s held onto for 58 years.

Laura Rice / Texas Standard

“It says, ‘Dear Paul … you’re the one who pulled our son Tom out of the street when he was shot. In doing so, you risked your life. We are indeed grateful to you and also thankful that your life was spared.’”

Eichelberger said his greatest regret is that he didn’t write her back.

“I’ll always be sorry for that,” he said. “But I was so overwhelmed and so humbled that she took the time to write that letter. She had just lost a son.”

Paul Eichelberger first shared his story with us for Texas Standard’s award-winning 2016 documentary and oral history Out of the Blue: 50 Years After the UT Tower Shooting. His letter is now in the care of the Briscoe Center for American History at UT Austin, along with our other archives.

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