On the surface, Ricky John Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche appeared to lead very different lives. A retired Army veteran and a married father of four, 53-year-old Best worked for the city of Portland. At 23, Namkai-Meche was a recent college grad who worked at an consulting firm focused on environmental issues.

What they shared, according to friends and family, was a willingness to put others first and stand up to wrongdoing.

On Friday, Best and Namkai-Mechei were stabbed to death while traveling on one of Portlands MAX light-rail train ahead of Memorial Day Weekend. The men had stood up from their seats to confront a man harassing two teenage girls, one of whom was wearing a hijab. Police say Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, who has ties to white supremacy, targeted the girls for religiously and racially motivated reasons.

He was saying things about how Muslims should die and how theyve been killing Christians for years, Dyjuana Hudson, one of the girls mothers, said.

When Best and Namkai-Mechei tried to intervene, along with a third man, 21-year-old Micah David-Cole Fletcher, Christian violently attacked them. Fletcher survived the stabbing but remains hospitalized with serious injuries.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler on Saturday called all three men heroes.

Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche was a friend who would never forget about you, said Christoper Landt, who grew up with him in Ashland, Oregon.

Landt told The Oregonian his friend was a voice of reassurance and kindness to those who were struggling, and would look out for others even if it meant putting himself in harms way.

If he knew he was going to die, he still would have done what he did, Landt said.

This is a guy who had so many friends and he seemed to have a special connection with every single one, Landt said. Wed all say the same thing: Man, hes just the best person.

Namkai-Meche graduated in 2016 from Portlands Reed College, where he studied economics and made a lasting impression on students and teachers.

He was thoughtful, humble, smart, inquisitive, and compassionate, Reed religion professor Kambiz GhaneaBassiri said in a statement . He was a wonderful human being. As good as they come. And now he is a hero to me.

Namaki-Meches mother, Asha Deliverance, memorialized her son in a statement on Facebook . He was a hero and will remain a hero on the other side of the veil. Shining bright star I love you forever, she wrote.

I cant stand by and do nothing.