PORTLAND, Ore. — The nine people killed after a gunman opened fire on an Oregon community college campus Thursday took different paths to the small rural college, ranging from teens starting college for the first time to adults who were seeking a second career. One was an assistant professor of English at the college.

Authorities released the identities of the victims Friday.

• Kim Saltmarsh Dietz, 59, loved the outdoors, her 18-year-old daughter and her two Great Pyrenees dogs, said Robert Stryk, the owner of Pyrenees Vineyards in Myrtle Creek, where Dietz worked as a caretaker for many years.

Dietz was taking classes at the same college as her daughter, who was unhurt in the shooting, Stryk said.

“That’s really the tragedy here, is that this is a woman who was just trying to better herself,” he said.

• The father of 19-year-old Lucero Alcaraz fought back tears and anger outside of his Roseburg home Friday.

“There is no sense in talking about it. It’s in vain,” Ezequiel Alcaraz said in Spanish. “What’s the point in showing our pain?”

Lucero’s sister, Maria Leticia Alcaraz, posted to Facebook that her sister was missing, then broke the news that she was dead.

“You were going to do great things,” she wrote.

• Jason Johnson had just started his first week at the college, his mother told NBC News Friday.

Tonja Johnson Engel said that her son had struggled with drug abuse, but decided to continue his education after completing a six-month rehab program with The Salvation Army in Portland.

She said that her son kissed her before he left for class Thursday morning.

“Love ya,” Engel told NBC her son told her. “I’ll see you this afternoon.”

• Quinn Glen Cooper of Roseburg, 18. In a statement issued Friday, his family wrote that “Quinn was funny, sweet, compassionate and such a wonderful loving person.”

“He always stood up for people,” the statement reads. He was going to take his brown belt test next week, and loved dancing and voice acting and playing Ingress with his older brother, Cody.

“Our lives are shattered beyond repair,” his family wrote. “We send our condolences to all the families who have been so tragically affected by this deranged gunman. No one should ever have to feel the pain we are feeling. Please remember the victims and their families. Please remember Quinn.”

• Lucas Eibel of Roseburg, 18. A statement by his family says that Eibel, who was studying chemistry, loved Future Farmers of America and volunteering at Wildlife Safari and Saving Grace animal shelter.

“He was an amazing soccer player,” a family statement reads. His family also noted his academic achievements, including graduating Roseburg High School with high academic marks, receiving a Ford Family Foundation scholarship, and receiving an Umpqua Community College scholars award.

• Lawrence Levine of Glide, 67, was an assistant professor of English at the college. Levine was a member of Steamboaters, a fly fishing and conservation group.

Dale Greenley, a fellow member of the group said Levine was an avid fisherman who used to be a guide on the north Umpqua River.

“He was kind of quiet and laid back, he didn’t say much,” Greenley said. “But he was a good writer.”

• Sarena Dawn Moore of Myrtle Creek, 44, was a member of Grants Pass Seventh-day Adventist Church, which had a post on its Facebook page mourning her death.

• Treven Taylor Anspach of Sutherlin, 20.

In a written statement read by officials, his family said that he was “one of the most positive young men, always looking for the best in life.”

“Treven was larger than life and brought out the best in those around him,” his family wrote.

• Rebecka Ann Carnes of Myrtle Creek, 18. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said that Carnes is the great-granddaughter of his first cousin. In a written statement, Merkley wrote: “Rebecka’s beautiful spirit will be enormously missed.”