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Prior days' news: By date | Search This week's print issue Back issues: By date | Search April 19, 2007Matthew La PorteMatthew La Porte was always very calm, he did not speak too much, and people who did not know him often had trouble figuring him out. They “saw him as some kind of rebel with no cause, or just a strange kid,” says his friend, Steven Carvellas. But friends and teachers of Mr. La Porte, 20, say the sophomore was secretly brilliant, and a rare student who always had a plan for what he wanted to do next.  Carson Long Military Institute Garry Hallman, who taught Mr. La Porte at Carson Long Military Institute, a boarding school in Pennsylvania, says it was not until he started getting the student’s quiz results back that he realized Mr. La Porte’s intelligence. Mr. Hallman says he gives one test every year, on political geography, that no cadet had ever finished without a mistake. “They leave there crying from it,” Mr. Hallman says. “He got a hundred.” Mr. La Porte spent six years at Carson Long, more than nearly anyone else, Mr. Hallman said, and moved on to study political science at Virginia Tech with an ROTC scholarship. He told friends he was training for the Air Force, where he wanted to become an intelligence officer. They say his natural habits — getting up early, studying intensely, keeping to a strict schedule — would have served him well. “I remember him as being one of those kids who probably didn’t need to go to military school,” his friend, Joe Kim, wrote in an e-mail message. “I see a smarter person inside you,” Mr. La Porte wrote. “Let him out. Let everyone know who you are. Smart people accomplish great things.” —Josh Keller Posted on Thursday April 19, 2007 | Permalink | |