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 Officials, family and friends say a man killed this week by a commuter train was a Silicon Valley tech worker trying to save another victim who was critically injured. George Kiriyama reports. 
 
 Officials, family and friends say a man killed this week by a commuter train was a Silicon Valley tech worker trying to save another victim who was critically injured. 
 
 Philip Scholz, 35, was trying to pull another man from the tracks Monday. The second man, whose name has not been released, has been too injured to talk to investigators but apparently did not want to leave the tracks, leading both men to get hit by the train traveling between 50 and 70 mph through Santa Clara. 
 
 Scholz, a Santa Clara University grad who lived in Pleasanton, was a marketer for computer graphics company Nvidia, where co-workers said they weren't surprised at all that he was willing to risk his life to save a stranger. 
 
 “He's not a person that would have just stood by,” Scholz’s wife Emily said in a telephone interview with NBC Bay Area. 
 
 People who knew him say it was not in Scholz's DNA to stand by when somebody needed help. 
 
 On Monday, Scholz was at the Santa Clara station when he saw a man down on the Caltrain tracks. He tried to pull the man off the tracks by lying on his stomach and reaching out to him as a train came toward them. 
 
 Scholz died. The man he was trying to help survived. 
 
 “He saw someone in danger and did what he could, or what he thought he could, to assist,” Emily Scholz said. 
 
 She said her husband's actions define the man she met at Santa Clara University so many years ago. 
 
 RELATED: Man Killed, Another Injured at Santa Clara Caltrain Station 
 
 “It says to me he was a person that was willing to do the right thing,” she said. “I know that sounds generic—but a person who didn't stop to really worry about why was that person out there.” 
 
 Her husband was always willing to drop what he was doing to help others, Emily said. 
 
 “He was really an open person who made himself available to anyone, whether it was my family or friends in need or helping out with a friend's kids,” she said. “He's just an incredibly generous person.” 
 
 For the past few days, Emily Scholz said her family and friends have been there for her, celebrating his life and his actions to save another in need. 
 
 “It's just incredible that we have this amazing network that I think is going to help me through the next years and the rest of my life.” 
 
 Copyright Associated Press / NBC Bay Area ||||| Philip Scholz, 35, was killed when he was hit by a Caltrain while trying to pull another man out of harm's way at the Santa Clara station Jan. 20, 2014, according to transit officials and his wife, Emily. (Courtesy of Emily Scholz) 
 
 SANTA CLARA -- As the express train came hurtling toward the Santa Clara station, Philip Scholz was waiting on the raised platform for his train home when he saw a man down on the Caltrain tracks. 
 
 Scholz acted fast. He dropped his backpack, lay down on his belly and reached for the stranger on the tracks. 
 
 "As the train approached, the person did want to get out of the way," said his wife, Emily Scholz, "but between him and Phil, something happened and they were hit." 
 
 Scholz died on the tracks. The man he tried to help survived. 
 
 Speaking publicly on Friday for the first time since her husband's rescue attempt went wrong Monday evening, Emily Scholz said she learned he was dead -- and what he did -- when San Mateo County sheriff's deputies arrived at her doorstep that night to deliver the horrible news. 
 
 Read and sign Guest book in memory of Philip Scholz 
 
 The only person who knows exactly what happened remains in critical condition at the hospital, unable to talk to investigators. Why he was on the tracks is still a mystery -- and it also isn't clear how he escaped death. 
 
 But based on surveillance footage, Caltrain knows that Scholz -- a popular Silicon Valley marketer -- was looking at the man on the tracks, maybe even talking to him before he made his last-ditch effort to pull the stranger to safety. 
 
 "It ... appears Mr. Scholz was attempting to help the surviving victim, based on preliminary information," said Christine Dunn, a Caltrain spokeswoman. 
 
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 The commuter train, however, was barreling through the station at 50 to 70 mph, Caltrain officials said. The express train didn't stop and plowed into the men about 5:30 p.m. on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Scholz, a 35-year-old Pleasanton resident who worked as a marketing manager for Santa Clara-based computer graphics company Nvidia, was dead at the scene. The identity of the man who survived has not been released. 
 
 Scholz's death left friends and co-workers stunned -- shocked to lose a well-loved and respected companion but not surprised to hear he died trying to save someone else. He helped people. That is what he did, they said, even to the extent of risking his life for someone he'd never met. 
 
 "That's totally Phil, putting someone else before himself," said Matt Conwell of Portland, Ore., who met Scholz 12 years ago in a professional capacity but became fast friends. "That's the way he was. I can only hope to live life like he did." 
 
 Nvidia co-founder Chris Malachowsky said the act "completely resonates with something consistent with the guy." 
 
 "He was confident, aggressive, capable, I could see that without a moment's hesitation, he's going to act," Malachowsky said. "I'm sure his knee-jerk, no hesitation to help someone else is what caused this -- he goes down as a hero in my book." 
 
 A Facebook page dedicated to remembering Scholz soon brimmed with more than 500 "likes," something Conwell called a "testament to how he lived, and how this guy was loved by friends and family." 
 
 Scholz grew up in Washington state, moving to the Bay Area after high school to attend Santa Clara University. That's where he met his wife, although they didn't start dating until after college, eventually moving to Pleasanton together a decade ago. 
 
 He made friends quickly at work, at gaming conventions and on the field playing a host of recreational sports. Despite his video-game related job, Scholz preferred off-screen endeavors, Emily Scholz said. 
 
 "Once in a while he might sneak away on a Friday night to play 'Call of Duty,' but I wouldn't identify him as a gamer," she said. "He was a huge A's fan, and very into sports. And more than just drinking beer and playing softball -- he played competitive baseball on a league." 
 
 But he meshed that competitive spirit with compassion and a genuine interest in others that made him very charismatic and "that guy you wanted to hang out with," Conwell said. 
 
 "I'm still in shock and disbelief," he said. "There's this residual feeling that this was just too soon, and not very fair." 
 
 Caltrain did not have any more information Friday about the man who survived. 
 
 Reeling from her sudden loss, Emily Scholz said she's not concerned with what investigators find out about why the man was on the tracks. 
 
 "It just doesn't matter at this point," she said in a tearful phone interview, instead reflecting on Philip's final act. "I just want people to know that he wasn't doing something stupid, or that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He wasn't in some kind of argument. 
 
 "He was doing the right thing when it happened." 
 
 Contact Eric Kurhi at 408-920-5852. Follow him at Twitter.com/erickurhi.
– Those who knew Philip Scholz couldn't figure out why he got so close to the tracks on Monday that he ended up being struck and killed by a commuter train in Santa Clara, California. Now they know: He was trying to save a life. Caltrain surveillance video shows that the 35-year-old Scholz, who was on a raised platform, spotted a man lying on the tracks as an express train approached, reports the San Jose Mercury News. He took off his backback, got down on his stomach, reached for the man, and appeared to talk to him. "As the train approached, the person did want to get out of the way, but between him and Phil, something happened, and they were hit," says Scholz's wife. The train struck them both at about 60mph, and while Scholz died at the scene, the other person somehow survived and remains hospitalized, reports NBC Bay Area. Authorities aren't identifying him or offering further details. It "appears Mr. Scholz was attempting to help the surviving victim," says a Caltrain spokesperson. Adds Scholz's boss at computer graphics company Nvidia: "I'm sure his knee-jerk, no hesitation to help someone else is what caused this—he goes down as a hero in my book."