Vern Wuensche grew up in McDade, 35 miles outside Austin. He was a business student at the University of Texas at the time of the shooting.
Wuensche worked to put himself through school, and lived as cheaply as he could.
He was on the fourth floor library of the Business Economics Building on the South Side of the building when someone came into the classroom and said there was a shooter on campus. It did not occur to Wuensche that such an event might cause an exam he had scheduled for that day to be canceled.
Most days, Wuensche would walk to his apartment between classes to eat lunch, but about once every two weeks or so he’d buy food from vending machines in the Business Economics Building. Aug. 1 happened to be a day he did not go home for lunch and he is thankful he missed being outside when the shooting happened.