Campbell Co., VA - A fatal accident Sunday night in Campbell County claimed the life of a teacher at Rustburg Middle and High schools.
Police say 62-year old Hermione Stickel-Wommack was killed after a driver tried to pass another vehicle on a double line on Leesville Road and ran head-on into Wommack's car.
Counselors have been at the middle school Monday trying to console those who knew her. The principal of Rustburg Middle, Richard Burge, says it has been a difficult day there.
Since the day she started, co-workers say Wommack's love of teaching and life had a way of bringing out the best in students and staff.
The class where Hermione Stickle-Wommack once taught is empty and quiet. It's like void her friends and co-workers are feeling with the news of her death.
“It was shock! It's a great loss to all of us," Amy Sangson teacher Rustburg Middle said.
Faculty began learning the news before school began. Then they had the difficult task of explaining it to students.
“Some have been very quiet, some didn't want to come into her room. At this age trying to understand grief, some of them don't know how," Sangson said.
Principal Richard Burge says since Wommack started teaching Spanish at the school in 2007, the program flourished, they even had to add more classes.
"We've loved having her and the students enjoyed having her as a teacher."
Faculty members say Wommack was an avid traveler; she went on missions trips, and taught English lessons in China.
She even brought back chopsticks for Burge as gift from her last visit.
"She was very witty, had a good sense of humor. She even corrected my Spanish frequently when I would try to speak Spanish. She was a very loving person."
"Hermione was a wonderful person. She was the kind of person you wanted to be friends with," Sangson said.
State Police say 34-year-old Mark Elliott of Lynch Station was driving the car that hit her and that alcohol and speed were factors in the crash.
Elliott is in critical condition at Lynchburg General Hospital, and police say charges are pending.
