Florida
Carol Zuckerman, 56
Died March 5, 2021.
Aventura Waterways K-8 Center, Miami, FL
First Grade
She was a free spirit, a devoted teacher and a single mom who adored her one and only daughter 10-year-old Lacey.
Carol Zuckerman, a Davie resident who taught first grade at Aventura Waterways K8 Center, died in her sleep Friday while at home battling the coronavirus. She was 56.
Her family and friends were still reeling from the news Sunday.
“Your eyes sparkled whenever talking about Lacey,” one friend wrote on a memorial page. “You will be so deeply missed.”
Another wrote: “I pray you are at peace my friend sleeping on a cloud. I will forever love you and cherish the times we spent together. I will keep up with Lacey and watch over her for you. You will never be forgotten my friend.”
A native of Great Neck, N.Y., Carol Zuckerman had planned to travel to New York to visit her mother over Spring Break, but never got to make the trip.
No one knows for certain where she contracted the coronavirus, her brother, Charles Zuckerman, said from his home in Elmira, N.Y. Doctors have not yet determined whether the virus caused or contributed to her death, he said.
Zuckerman moved to South Florida 15 years ago, her brother said. She spent several years in Aventura but moved to Davie in 2019 with her daughter and their toy poodle, Lexie.
Charles Zuckerman said his sister was known for her fearless independence.
“She was a very active person who had a lot of friends,” he said. “She was like her grandmother. She had a bit of gypsy soul. Loved to travel. Had friends wherever she went.”
As a young woman, she spent several years living in Paris. Later, she lived in California, working at a talent agency. She also lived in Maryland before making the move to sunny Florida.
She earned a master’s degree in business administration, but chose a career in education instead.
“She loved kids and wanted them to feel special,” her brother said. “Teaching was a very satisfying career for her.”
Lacey, Zuckerman’s daughter, will move to New York and be raised by an aunt who has a daughter the same age.
“She’s doing as well as you can” under the circumstances, Charles Zuckerman said of his young niece. “She’s a positive little girl. Just like her mother. She’s looking forward to being with family.”
In addition to her daughter and brother, Carol Zuckerman leaves behind her mother, Anna Zuckerman of Great Neck, N.Y.; sister Marcia Feurer of Westchester, N.Y.; and extended family.
Faye Chadwell, 67
Died March 1, 2021.
Paterson Elementary School, Fleming Island, FL
ESE Secretary
Faye T. Chadwell was called home to heaven all too soon on March 1, 2021, at Orange Park Medical Center, Orange Park, Florida.
Faye was born on December 30, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois to Jacqueline J. Miller and Walter J. Kukla. Faye is a graduate of Tinley Park High School, class of 1971. Upon graduation, Faye entered the work force in banking. She also worked for Area 36 Special Olympics in Marquette, Michigan. Faye found her true calling in the hotel and restaurant industry and held various positions ranging from server to senior executive throughout her career. Faye served as the Controller and then General Manager of Culver Cove Resort from 1993-1996. That was followed by stints at Holiday Inn Properties as a General Manager from 1996-1998. Faye shifted her focus to education and served as the Executive Director of the Indiana Hospitality and Tourism Foundation from 1998-2001. Her career then took her to Orlando, Florida where she served as the Senior Vice President of the Educational Institute of the American Hotel and Lodging Association from 2001-2011. Faye retired from the hospitality industry and next worked as a para professional in special education for Clay County Schools from 2013 until her passing. She worked at Fleming Island Elementary and Swimming Pen and finally at Paterson Elementary as the ESE Secretary.
Faye is survived by her loving husband of 10 years Richard (Chip) Chadwell Jr.; son David (Julie) Gayes, son Nick (Kari) Gayes; grandchildren Emerson, Eva, Katharine, and Niko; stepchildren Reganne and Anders Chadwell; brothers Tom, John and Chris Kukla. She is preceded in death by her parents and brother Walter Kukla.
Faye had many passions in her life. She loved to travel and enjoyed cruising. Dancing and music were another outlet that made her smile! She also loved to watch her beloved Packers and Cubbies – a highlight being in 2016 when the Cubs won the World Series. She was very supportive and acted like a team mom to her husband’s numerous athletic teams over their ten-year marriage.
Faye will be laid to rest at the Jacksonville National Cemetery on a date that will be determined in the near future. The family is also going to have a celebration of life on a future date in Jacksonville, Florida and also in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Donna Blatch, 54
Died February 16, 2021.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Miami FL
Bus Driver
Friends and family members are mourning the loss of a Miami-Dade County Public Schools bus driver who died after contracting COVID-19.
Outside a bus terminal Tuesday morning, friends of MDCPS bus driver Donna Blatch offered a prayer to her grieving children.
“You know we are out here today lord God, lord God this Covid is real,” friend Letty McGhee said in prayer. “We ask them to touch heal and deliver them lord God, lord God give them peace right now
Donnna’s daughter Kanika Bradshaw said through tears that she already misses the simple moments, like talking to her mom.
“She was a good friend, she was a good mother, she was outspoken,” said Bradshaw. “Her just calling me, just calling me.”
Donna’s colleagues are also frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic, and they explained that bus drivers continue to struggle with the fear of exposure.
“The kids are not keeping their mask on their faces, kids are not social distancing on the bus [and] we are in a closed confined space,” said Mairetha Milton. “They should treat us with some dignity. We are asking to be respected the way the teachers are being respected.
“We are frontline workers. We can’t stay home and drive a bus from a computer.”
Between students who refuse to wear their masks and a breakdown in communication on whether any students sent home to quarantine were also on their routes, bus drivers’ concerns are growing.
Bradshaw said her mom often expressed concern that she was not being notified when kids who had been on her bus route were sent home to quarantine.
She believes this is crucial information so bus drivers can make life-critical decisions like whether to quarantine themselves or get tested.
“I know she inquired about the protocols and why kids were missing over a certain period of time,” Bradshaw said, adding that with other family members working as bus drivers, she feels like her mom’s legacy will be fighting for them to be safe and respected, fighting for their dignity.
“I lost my best friend to this covid,” Milton said. “How many more Donna Blatch’s is it going to be before it happens to one of us? We’re scared; we have underlying conditions, we have families with underlying conditions that we may take this Covid home to our families, and they need to take into consideration when they talk about opening these schools, they need to take our lives in consideration. The teachers can work and do that from home, we can’t do that. So we are asking for our community, pastors, the governor, the mayor to help us. Make it safer for us and these kids on these Dade County school buses. We have not got any recognition for what we are doing as bus drivers and we are afraid of losing our lives.”
In a statement, the school district said Donna worked with them for nearly 18 years and that they did not locate any positive COVID-19 cases involving students on her bus route.
The district also said when aware of a positive test, they do work to notify drivers if the student was on their route, adding there is ample PPE (personal protective equipment) and that drivers just need to ask for more if they run out.
McGhee however believes more can be done to keep drivers safe and to show recognition for their essential work.
“Recognize and understand this is real, someone lost their life,” she said. “We want to be recognized that we are frontline workers too.”
Donna’s death comes as the United States just marked a grim milestone of 500,000 lives lost to COVID-19.
As a caregiver, one thing bus drivers said you can do to help them stay safe is stress the life-critical importance of students wearing their masks and practicing social distancing while on the school bus to children, reminding them we are all in this together.
According to information posted on the Federal Education Association (FEA) Safe Schools Report, at least four active school bus drivers have died from COVID-19 in the state of Florida since Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran’s July 6 reopening order.
To see their names and view the FEA’s COVID-19 related data, click here.
A statement was sent to Local 10 late Tuesday from Phyllis Leflore, president of the AFSCME Local 1184. It read:
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Ms. Blatch, an incredibly dedicated bus driver and veteran Union member. We are keeping her family, friends, and colleagues in our prayers during this difficult time. Ms. Blatch is the third loss from COVID 19 we have had within our Union in just the two weeks.
AFSCME Local 1184 is seeking a higher level of communication between M-DCPS and our Transportation Department to ensure that we are notified of all COVID 19 cases as they are reported in the District so that we can take appropriate measures to protect our members, students, and communities they serve. It is essential that we have a clear path of communication within our District in order to save lives.”
Sherrie McGary, 51
Died January 23, 2021.
Oslo Middle School, Vero Beach, FL
Media Assistant
An Oslo Middle School staff member, Sherrie Lynn McGary, died last week and a colleague attributed her death to a case of COVID-19 contracted on campus.
McGary, 51, the school’s media center assistant, died Jan. 23. She was the first public school staff member to die from the virus in Indian River County.
While the school officials said there is no way to confirm where McGary contracted the virus, School Superintendent David Moore fired off letters to Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Health Department officials calling for educators to get a higher priority for COVID-19 vaccinations.
“The loss of this staff member has reverberated throughout our school communities,” Moore said in a Jan. 27 letter to DeSantis. “I am respectfully requesting that provisions be made to swiftly prioritize educators in opportunities to be vaccinated against COVID-19.”
Several School Board members offered their condolences to the McGary family and the school district sent grief counselors to console students and staff members.
“As something like that happens, we have a crisis team that is immediately there,” Schools Superintendent David Moore said. “We’re being very sensitive and proactive in providing systems of support.”
A total of 15 students and staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Oslo Middle School so far this school year, according to school district records.
A seventh-grade civics teacher at Oslo Middle School, Todd Holden, blamed McGary’s death on the virus, asserted she caught COVID-19 on the job and said he fears other educators will also die from the disease.
“It’s going to be some time before Oslo gets back to whatever passes as normal in today’s environment,” Holden told the School Board during its Jan. 26 business meeting.
“My dear colleague’s death brings us face to face with a harsh reality,” Holden said. “There is no doubt the virus is running through our schools and Ms. McGary contracted the virus at Oslo.
“In the last two weeks, we have had seven teachers diagnosed with COVID, many having significant if not severe symptoms,” Holden said. “Of course, the virus is running through the schools. To deny that or suggest otherwise is to live in a place other than reality.
“To imagine Ms. McGary will be the last school employee to die of this virus contracted at school is also a fantasy,” Holden said. “There is no telling which of us will be next.”
But school district spokeswoman Cristen Maddux told Vero Beach 32963: “With COVID-19 being prevalent in all areas of our community, there is no way to confirm, and it is not appropriate to assume, where an individual contracted the virus.
“We will do everything in our ability to continue enforcing the health and safety guidelines within our schools and expedite the availability of the vaccine to our teachers and staff members,” Maddux said.
Holden urged the School Board to lobby state and federal officials to designate educators as frontline workers so they can gain quicker access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Meanwhile, the school district reported 30 students and eight staff members tested positive for COVID-19 between Jan. 25 and Jan. 31. Another 219 students and one staff member were directed to quarantine.
Altogether, 160 students and 47 staff members have tested positive for the virus since the school year started Aug. 24, school district records show. Another 1,563 students and 31 staff members have quarantined.
The school district reports COVID-19 cases for students and staff members attending school in person.
The Florida Department of Health, which keeps track of COVID-19 cases for those involved in virtual, as well as in person learning at public schools along with cases in charter and private schools, reports a much higher number of total cases.
According to the state, there have been 660 cases of COVID-19 in 34 public, charter and private schools in Indian River County as of Jan. 23, Health Department records show. That includes 524 students, 42 staff members and 94 people whose school role is listed as “unknown.”
During the week of Jan. 17-23, 46 students, one staff member and 14 whose status was “unknown” in the county’s public, charter and private schools tested positive for the virus, Health Department records show.
One of those COVID-19 cases was a student at Oslo Middle School, Health Department records show.
Holden praised McGary’s commitment to the students at Oslo Middle School.
“We have lost one of the hearts and souls that makes Oslo the school that it is,” Holden told the School Board. “Sherrie McGary was … always kind and generous, willing to do whatever needed to be done for what she called ‘my kids.’”
Jeanne Martin, 56
Died January 18, 2021.
Neptune Beach Elementary School, Jacksonville, FL
Paraprofessional
Jeanne Lee Martin, 56, of Atlantic Beach, FL, passed away January 18, 2021. She was born in Milwaukee, WI on November 17, 1964. Jeanne Lee Olson graduated from White Fish Bay High School and received her Associates Degree from the University of Wisconsin Greenbay, Sheboygan. Jeanne was married to John F. Martin on August 3, 2002.
She had a career in Education and Marketing for the DCPS at Neptune Beach Elementary School and AT&T respectively. Her passions in life included traveling, gardening, caring for those around her and her beloved Green Bay Packers!
In addition to her husband, John, she is survived by her son, Jeremy Martin; step-daughter, Rachelle Martin; mother, Rita Mae Funk; brothers, Donald and Daniel Olson; sisters, Judy Bingenhiemer, Jill Steadtar, Jan Cruz, and Jacklyne Adair. The family will receive friends 1-5pm Saturday, January 30, 2021 at HARDAGE-GIDDENS FUNERAL HOME, 1701 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville Beach, FL.
Maria Hernandez, 55
Died January 7, 2021.
Mulberry High School, Mulberry, FL
Paraprofessional, Secretary
Polk County Public Schools now has at least one fatality from COVID-19.
Maria Hernandez, 55, a longtime paraprofessional and secretary in Mulberry schools, died from the virus on Thursday, according to family and friends.
“We are heartbroken about the loss of Maria,” said Michael Young, principal of Mulberry High School, where Hernandez worked in the guidance office. “She was driven by her passion to help our students and families have better futures. Maria excelled at celebrating student accomplishments and encouraging them to stretch themselves beyond their expectations. Her Instagram handle was ‘Mulberry Momma Bear,’ and it was very fitting for her – she filled in that role for all of our students.”
Young added that, in addition to her work duties, Hernandez could be found tutoring, mentoring, selling tickets for games, chaperoning fieldtrips to colleges — “all without pay. She was motivated by love.”
PCPS officials said they had not heard of any other employee dying of COVID, which would make Hernandez the first known fatality among the district’s 13,000 employees and more than 100,000 students.
“She was a valued member of the Mulberry High School community, and will be dearly missed,” said PCPS spokeswoman Rachel Pleasant. “Our deepest sympathies go to her family, friends and colleagues.”
Her daughter, 29-year-old Blanca Helmick, said Hernandez and her youngest son, 16-year-old Jacob Ritchie, attended a wrestling tournament involving seven Polk County schools in mid-December. After people started getting sick, the school district canceled all athletic events.
Helmick said Jacob got sick first and then her mother began showing symptoms and tested positive.
“She was fine, and then it wasn’t until a few days later, she was starting to feel sick herself and it just got worse after that,” Helmick said.
She held back tears to describe her mother as the most selfless person she has known.
“My mom was very giving — I literally didn’t know anyone like her,” Helmick said. “She not only cared so much about her family, she cared about her community and kids in the high school and kids in the migrant program. When I was little…I don’t know how many house visits I went with her (on) to families that were in need. She would literally drop anything to help someone who needed help, to giving them her last dollar. That was my mom. And she was a woman of God, her faith was so important to her.”
Helmick said her mother was born in Eagle Pass, Texas, and is survived by Helmick, Ritchie and Hernandez’s other four children: Clint Griner, 36, Jamie Waring, 28, Ronald Helmick, 26, and Taylor Helmick, 24.
Dani Higgins, a migrant interventionist teacher for PCPS, worked alongside Hernandez at Kingsford Elementary School and then through their migrant relief work.
“We started a relationship as co-workers and quickly became friends,” said Higgins, who worked tirelessly with Hernandez and Emilia Segovia to help Mulberry’s migrant community with donations of food, clothing, school supplies, tutoring and mentoring. “Maria treated everyone with respect and kindness. She would always do what was necessary to help others if it was in her ability to do so. That often meant staying well beyond her workday to meet a parent who was unable to get off (work) earlier, to make phone calls, translate documents, teach English, or to translate for a meeting. Much of these activities were not paid hours, but she enjoyed helping others.”
Higgins said Hernandez encouraged the migrant students to set goals and to attain them because they are a population that doesn’t have much of what is needed to succeed and is often marginalized by society.
“They could count on her — she cheered them on. She cheered the families on,” Higgins said. “However, she didn’t stop there. She also spent weekends and evenings translating college nights, chaperoning field trips and attending service events with the Adelante Club. She always showed up for the students when they needed her. We attended many graduation ceremonies, family celebrations, quinceaneras, weddings and births. She valued the families that she served, and that made a tremendous impact – on them and on me.”
Those who knew her took to social media on Thursday to express their grief and their condolences to Hernandez’s family, including her children.
Cindy Hill Spear taught third and fifth grades at Kingsford Elementary School and worked with Hernandez. She also taught one of Hernandez’s daughters, Blanca, in the fifth grade.
“Maria Hernandez was such a wonderful woman and a great asset to the Mulberry community,” Spear said in a Facebook private message. “During her stay at Kingsford she was always willing to step up and help wherever she was needed, whether it was helping Hispanic parents during a parent conference or taking extra duties at school. She was such a wonderful parent her children. Mulberry has lost a gem, and she will be sorely missed.”
Helmick has started a GoFund me page to help with funeral costs and to set up a trust for Jacob. It can be found at http://bit.ly/35iboQn.
Stacey Williams Sr., 53
Died January 4, 2021.
Eastside High School, Gainesville, FL
Football Coach
Stacey J. Williams, AKA “Coach” & “Hog”, 53 of Gainesville, transitioned on January 4, 2021. Stacey is a 1986 graduate of Hawthorne High School and was employed at LifeSouth Community Blood Bank, Gainesville, FL. He took pride in mentoring and coaching local youths as a Football Coach for 25 years.
He leaves to cherish his memories, loving and dedicated wife, Latraile Williams, Gainesville, FL; children, Stacey J. Williams Jr., Shaun C. Williams, Desmond D. Williams, all of Gainesville, FL, Darius D. Akins Williams, Norcross, GA, Zayna J. Akins Williams, Archer, FL; grandchildren, Kaden , Stacey J. III, Siare and Sean Williams all of Gainesville; siblings, Elvis Williams (Velma), Larry B. Williams Sr (April), Tammy R. Williams, Myron Williams, William Reynolds (Yolanda), Delvin Williams; step sister, Sharon Purdy; Second Mom, Irish Ivey; God Mothers, Cheryl Williams & Aldonia Hawkins, all of Hawthorne; and other relatives and friends.
Preceded in death by his parents, Annie Gillins Williams & Leo Williams; a son, Keyon Williams; siblings, Leonard, Gail, and Reginald Williams.
Graveside Service will be held 11:00 a.m. Saturday, January 16, 2021 at Hawthorne Cemetery, Pastor Kinnzon Hutchinson is Officiating. Viewing on Friday at Pinkney-Smith Funeral Home 21400 SE Hawthorne Rd, Hawthorne, FL, 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. and Saturday at the gravesite 10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. MASK AND SOCIAL DISTANCING TO BE OBSERVED. The cortege will form 10:15 a.m. at PINKNEY-SMITH FUNERAL HOME OF HAWTHORNE.
Earl Graham, 72
Died January 8, 2021.
Apopka High School, Apopka, FL
Basketball Coach
For nearly 50 years Earl Graham was a youth basketball coach. It wasn’t the wins and losses he cared about most, it was his players.
“Making an impact on a young man’s life,” Graham’s son, JayRaj said. “It was just something that just meant a lot to him.”
In December, the man who loved to coach caught the coronavirus.
The virus didn’t just sideline his basketball season at Apopka High, but according to his family, it ultimately took his life.
“It hurt,” JayRaj said. “Especially with everything going on, you don’t want to think that maybe we could have done things differently or done something about this earlier, and we wouldn’t be at this point.”
Not only did the man with a smile from ear to ear help boys on the court, he helped everyday citizens off the court while working for the Orlando Fire Department for more than 25 years.
“See him coming down the pole, putting his stuff on, and getting on that truck and leaving that was pretty exciting,” Graham’s other son Roderick said with a smile. “But you knew that was something good if they were leaving also.”
A grandfather, a father, a fire fighter, a coach, a regular. No one in Earl’s life was a stranger.
“He never met a stranger in his life,” JayRaj said. “We would be at the grocery store sometimes, and he will wait in line and he will look behind him and just start talking to the person.”
Before Earl caught the coronavirus while he was doing what he loved: coaching basketball as an assistant coach at Apopka High. His schedule is stuck to the fridge to this day, with his handwriting on the schedule showing he went out a winner.
Earl Graham over the years coached hundreds of kids who went off to play college basketball, but he did coach a pair with ties to the NBA. Vince Carter, and Austin Rivers.
Earl Graham was 72 years old.
Deborah Menendez-Holloway, 51
Died January 11, 2021.
Arlington Elementary School, Jacksonville, FL
Second and Third Grade
Deborah Menendez-Holloway, a longtime Duval County Public Schools educator, died of COVID-19 on Jan. 11 at the age of 51.
Menendez-Holloway taught second and third grade Language Arts students at Arlington Elementary this school year. Prior to that, she taught at Love Grove Elementary school for 17 years.
“She was incredibly generous, kind and so, so funny,” her daughter, Regina Holloway, told the Times-Union. “She had a very universal sense of humor. Everyone found her funny and relatable and understanding.”
The teacher’s brown hair with loose curls and toothy grin greeted Duval County Public Schools students and colleagues for over two decades.
“She brought love, joy, and kindness to her students and classrooms,” a statement from the school district said. “She will be deeply missed by her school community.”
Menendez-Holloway was born Nov. 16, 1969, and raised in Staten Island, New York. She moved to Jacksonville in 2000 and began teaching shortly after.
It’s unclear exactly how she contracted COVID-19, her daughter said, adding that Menendez-Holloway was teaching in-person since the beginning of the school year, but that the family was taking the virus seriously.
“It was a hazard of the job,” Holloway said. “She was a front line worker.”
According to Holloway, her mom was diagnosed with COVID-19 in mid-December and hospitalized for three weeks.
Love and support from former colleagues, students, family and friends has overwhelmed Facebook feeds since Menendez-Holloway’s passing.
“Seeing everything on social media and seeing how many people she truly touched speaks to how special she was,” Holloway said about her mom. “She never realized that.”
Local education advocate Latrice Carmichael, of the Jacksonville Public Education Fund’s Parents Who Lead initiative, called Menendez-Holloway “the heart at Love Grove.” Carmichael’s son, Donovan had Menendez-Holloway as a teacher in elementary school.
“The students knew she did not play,” she said, “but they knew she was going to go hard for them.”
Even in sickness, Menendez-Holloway was thinking about her students.
Just last week, while Menendez-Holloway was being treated for COVID-19 in the hospital, she and Carmichael shared a text exchange. Carmichael sent photos of a group of former Love Grove students, to which Menendez-Holloway replied, “you just don’t know how happy that makes me.”
“She never mentioned at that very moment she was in the hospital battling COVID,” Carmichael said. “She simply thought about students and said ‘Give them my love.’ This is such a loss for Duval.”
As things took a turn for the worse and Menendez-Holloway remained hospitalized into the new year, text served as a primary form of communication between her and her family, as well.
Holloway and her mom would talk about next year’s Christmas plans, since they didn’t get to see family this year. They joked about hospital food, with Menendez-Holloway sending pictures of her meals and would quip about the best and worst dishes she’d eaten.
“She was definitely a fighter, she was a positive person,” Holloway said. “She never wanted anyone to be sad. Our conversations would be funny things.”
Former students, like Obri Richardson, now college-aged, remarked about Holloway putting them on the right path.
“Love Grove Elementary will never be the same without my fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Deborah Holloway,” Richardson wrote on Facebook. “From her comical remarks to her pouring of wisdom, she touched the hearts and souls of those on the margins. I’m glad to say I was one of them who she both taught and touched.”
Deborah Menendez-Holloway is survived by her daughter, Regina, the Menendez and Holloway families, and all of her chosen family and students she knew over the years. A private service and memorial will be held in the future.
Jeff Larson, 60
Died December 25, 2020.
Milton High School, Milton, FL
Science, Football Coach
Jeff Larson, a longtime Milton High School science teacher and football coach, passed away on Christmas Day due to COVID-19.
Larson was 60 years old and had been a teacher at Milton High for the past 25 years.
Santa Rosa County School District Superintendent Karen Barber confirmed Larson’s death to the News Journal, saying the school and entire Milton community had lost an incredible teacher and man and that he would be missed by his students and fellow faculty members.
“Jeff had been sick, he had not been in school for the previous two weeks (before Christmas break),” Barber said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “He had been in the hospital for several weeks receiving treatment for COVID before he passed away. It had been a long, very, very difficult treatment, they were trying to save his life.”
Larson’s wife teaches at Rhodes Elementary School and their daughter teaches at Pace High School, Barber said.
In a public Facebook post, former Milton Mayor Wesley Meiss honored his late coach and mentor, saying Larson was a “Christian (who) set an example for my own walk with Christ.”
“He was more than a coach; he was a mentor who helped set the stage for my adult life,” Meiss wrote. “Many have wondered just how he took a group of average/undersized offensive linemen and delivered them to the doorstep of a Florida State Championship? Answer: ‘Technique.’ … His technique turned young boys into the men we are today.”
Larson’s death is the latest in a string of COVID-19 deaths to rock the Milton High community.
The school’s longtime track and field coach Joe Austin died in July after battling the disease for many weeks, leaving behind his wife and young son. The school’s assistant principal, Benjie West, also lost his 80-year-old father to COVID on Christmas day. The elder Benjamin Howard West was laid to rest on Tuesday.
“We’ve had so many loved ones pass away, we’ve had mothers and fathers, spouses,” Barber said. “It’s just one of the worst things I’ve had to deal with as superintendent. We have monthly meetings with our senior staff, principals and vice principals, and this month I made us meet virtually, because having 70 people in a room right now maybe isn’t the best for mitigating the spread of the virus.”
Barber has consistently stood by her decision to keep Santa Rosa County schools open despite the rising COVID cases, saying health department inspectors have determined spread is not happening within the schools.
Barber said grief counselors will be available for students and faculty once school is back in session on Jan. 4.