Collegiate Times

Robert Kovack, a Virginia Tech graduate student, went missing 10 years ago.

Chapter Six: Graduate Teaching Assistant

Rob met Jack Davis, the current dean of the College of Architecture, shortly after being chosen as a GTA.

Davis met with Rob at least once a week for the year and half that they had a GTA-professor relationship.

"I met him when classes started in August 1997," Davis said. "I had requested a GTA, and he was proposed. I reviewed his capabilities and said, 'Sure.'"

Rob's duties as a GTA included "the preparation of lecture materials and tasks that support the teaching missions," Davis said.

"He was a kind person," Davis said. "He was conscientious and very interested and quite eager to be involved. He did an excellent job."

And in addition to helping Davis with lectures, Rob was also interested in having Davis review his own studio work.

Rob thoroughly enjoyed the architectural engineering that he was studying, and was hired to begin working for Blackwood and Associates, a reputable architecture firm in Fairmont, after he graduated.

At a time in the architecture industry that saw many college graduates hard-pressed to find work, Davis said that Rob's portfolio and work experience would have been attractive to employers, even in the job crunch.

Though he had met with his employers, Rob was never actually able to experience his first day in the profession as he went missing just weeks into the first semester of his second year in Tech's graduate architecture program.

Davis put Rob in touch with the New River Valley director of Habitat for Humanity.

"I put him in contact with Habitat for Humanity because there was a need to produce a document that would identify all the houses Habitat had done in the area," Davis said. "Since I was on the board then, I was working with him on that as well."

Davis worked with Robert during his time at Habitat, but never truly became close with his GTA.

But even with the professional relationship between the two, Davis was still selected to provide the opening remarks at a memorial event for Rob six weeks after his disappearance:

"It has now been over six weeks since Rob Kovack, a graduate student in architecture, disappeared. His family is faced with many difficult questions and few answers. To this effort, they have established a reward for information and are considering the hiring of a private investigator to assist the police. This family of modest means is not asking for donations; however, as members of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies family, we can make a difference by making a contribution to help resolve this unfortunate situation. Rob was my GTA last year and I can tell you personally, he was the kind of person who would be active in an effort to support one of us," Davis said at the memorial.

Though Davis could not remember specifics on when he last saw Robert Kovack, he noted that it would not have been long before his disappearance.

As Rob was expected to meet Davis in his office weekly to talk, Robert Kovack's last trip to Cowgill Hall, the same trip in which he encountered Porzio, may have also been the final meeting to discuss architecture with his adviser.

Chapter Seven: Halloween parties

Oct. 31, 1996. For Michael and Robert Kovack, this signified two things. The annual Halloween parties were in full-swing downtown, paired with the celebration of Rob's Oct. 30 birthday.

The family had their own party at home for Rob, consisting of cake, ice cream and everything else one would expect at a birthday festivity. But as Rob and Michael were growing older, so were the parties being held. After the family gatherings, the brothers gathered their friends and hit the bars in town that consistently hosted exceptional Halloween parties.

For a stretch of time, Rob actually bartended at a place holding several of the parties.

But after his disappearance, Michael said, the mood of the Rivesville gatherings became more somber. They no longer ended with friends lounging around drinking and playing games.

"We'd be rehashing it all again," Michael said.

Be it to inquire about updates in the case or to offer their own two cents, Michael said, "There's not a time that people don't ask about it."

Ten years have passed since Rob was reported missing, and as autumn fades to winter in Rivesville, the Kovack family, as well as the town, must again face a season of somber memories and dismal emotions.

Robert would have turned 35 on Oct. 30, 2008.

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