Winchester Native Among 4 Americans Killed In Libya

A Massachusetts native is among the four Americans killed in the recent attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya.

Glen Doherty, a 42-year-old former U.S. Navy SEAL who'd served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was working a security detail for a private company at the consulate in Benghazi.

Doherty grew up in Winchester, where he graduated from high school in 1988. One of his teachers here on Thursday remembered him as an outstanding student.

"I had him in Grade 11 English, British Lit to be exact," said Judy Hession. "When you work with teenagers it's the very special ones that stay in your mind."

Hession now heads up the English Department for Winchester Schools. When she heard the news of Doherty's death, she remembered him vividly and yearbook photos confirmed her memories.

"And there he was, exactly as I pictured him," she said. "Blond hair, freckles, big smile. I've taught for over 30 years and he's one of the most memorable students I ever had."

She said she's shocked by the news.

"I was stunned, absolutely stunned," Hession said. "I knew he had gone to aviation school after high school and I knew he was a risk-taker, and I knew he did tennis and wrestling, which are sports for independent kids, so I'm not surprised that he became a SEAL and I'm wicked proud of him."

Before becoming a Navy SEAL, Doherty flew planes, rode a motorcycle, skied and worked as a whitewater rafting guide.

At his high school Thursday, there was a moment of silence in his honor.

For students like sophomore Hendrix Abreu, who was too young to have known Doherty, it was a sobering moment.

"That he graduated from our school and stuff, he was serving this country and he died. It's sad," Abreu said.

Doherty's sister, Kate Quigley, spoke for the family outside her mother's home.

"Our family would like to thank everyone for their love and support," she said. "Glen lived his life to the fullest. He was my brother, but if you ask his friends, he was their brother as well."

Doherty's message in his senior yearbook was prescient. It reads, in part:

When I have done everything, and seen all there's to see, and dreamed the dreams way past the edge, but have more left in me, I'll cry myself to sleep that night, and pray to God to die.

This story was updated with the Morning Edition feature version.