Tucked away among the colorful pages that detail Sith troopers, Resistance supporters and moons in a galaxy far, far away is a short paragraph, not even 100 words long, telling the story of a Jedi Master and historian named Ri-Lee Howell who collected “many of the earliest accounts of exploration and codifications of The Force.”

But read between the lines of that blurb in the new book, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary,” and the words whisper the story of Riley Howell, the 21-year-old college student who died in April after tackling a gunman who opened fire on his classroom at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Mr. Howell was hailed as a hero in the aftermath of the shooting, and he received military awards for his brave final moments.

Now, he is memorialized in the “Star Wars” canon.

The Jedi Master title appears to be an appropriate tribute for Mr. Howell, whose friends and family described him as a “Star Wars” fanatic and scholar.