Kermit Holderman played many roles in Midpeninsula residents' lives over the years. He was a neighbor to Portola Valley residents for three decades, a favorite teacher of students at Sacred Heart Schools in Atherton, "Pops" to his four grandchildren and a lover of Ethiopian food. Holderman, 73, died on March 31 from COVID-19.

Holderman, or "Kerm" as he was affectionately called by friends, taught English at Sacred Heart from 1991 to 2012. Before that, he worked at Woodside Priory in Portola Valley for eight years, starting in 1982. He retired to San Diego, but continued to teach summer school at St. Francis High School in Mountain View.

"Kermit was a beloved English teacher at Sacred Heart Prep from 1991-2012," the Sacred Heart Alumni Association emailed alumni on April 11. "His students adored him and he was a constant source of positivity and joy for the faculty and staff. Kermit loved teaching, he loved athletics and he loved Sacred Heart. Kermit's two sons, Zack (SHP '98), who is married to Kelley Laudermilch (SHP '99), and Dane (SHP '00), attended SHP and his wife, Susan, was a familiar face on campus too."

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on March 27, 1947, Holderman developed his love of Ethiopian food during his time in the Peace Corps following graduation from Oklahoma State University, said his son Zack Holderman. His time in the Peace Corps was also the start of what would be a 50-year teaching career.

The illness

Kermit always enjoyed picking up his family members at the airport.

On March 1, he made one such trip, giving Zack's wife Kelley a ride home following a ski trip to Vail, Colorado, with 11 of her friends. It's during this car ride that Kelley said she believes she unknowingly passed the virus to to her father-in-law.

Kermit soon came down with what appeared to be a cold. Susan also became ill, but never developed serious symptoms. Kelley was asymptomatic. For Kermit it was different, though.

By March 12, Kermit started to feel really sick and developed a fever, Zack said. A visit to the hospital the following day confirmed Kermit had pneumonia.

Kelley insisted Kermit take a test for the coronavirus once she started to piece together her own possible exposure to the virus (Vail would later become known as the epicenter of the virus in Colorado). His results came back positive on the evening of March 14. He was given oxygen and antibiotics, and was in good spirits at the time, Zack said.

But soon doctors sedated Kermit and intubated him. He should be on a ventilator for just a week or two and then he would recover, doctors told the family. Because of how highly contagious the virus is, his family couldn't visit him.

But he wasn't getting better. An MRI later revealed he likely had a stroke. He had multiple organ failures. On March 27, Kermit turned 73 in the hospital.

On March 31, his family decided to take him off the ventilator and they visited him in the hospital for a couple of hours as he passed away. They wore full gowns, headgear, masks and latex gloves, Zack said.

"It (the virus) decimated my dad," said Zack, who noted his father was in great health when he was struck by the illness.

Eleven of the 12 women on the ski trip ultimately tested positive for the coronavirus and another woman's father also died of the illness. Zack said he was on a trip when Kelley returned from Colorado and didn't catch the virus himself. How their young children tested negative for the virus, Zack said, is "beyond him."

Kermit's illness and death have taken an emotional toll on Kelley because she possibly was the connection for her father-in-law becoming ill.

"It's no one's fault, but it's horrific," Zack said. "It can pass over one person with a slight cough or hardly any symptoms."

Giving back

The women on trip have donated plasma and are participating in research on the virus, Zack said. People who recover from COVID-19 have antibodies in their plasma that can attack the virus, according to the American Red Cross. This plasma is being evaluated as treatment for patients with serious or life-threatening, or potentially life-threatening, infections, according to the organization.

"They're doing everything they possibly can to really help others," he said.

Kelley has donated plasma to treat COVID-19 patients through San Diego Blood and the Red Cross.

The family hopes that by sharing their story they can encourage people to follow the stay-at-home directives.

"It's not comfortable being secluded and in quarantine, but do it," Zack said. "I just want people to behave like it's their father or mother who would be impacted by it. People have reached out (to me) — a friend from childhood said: 'I see it on CNN, I see it on MSNBC, and it wasn't real until we heard about your dad.'"

Impact on others

During a virtual prayer service for Holderman on April 15 held by Sacred Heart, family, former colleagues and friends talked about the impact he had on their lives.

Zack said it's hard to find the words to encapsulate who his dad was, but "genuine" is one that quickly comes to mind.

"There was no pretense about him," Zack said. "There was no posturing. There wasn't anything but purity in him."

Kevin Morris, a Sacred Heart math and computer science teacher, said Kermit had the ability to take something as amorphous and complicated as writing and make it so simple for students. Morris shared a speech he gave when Kermit retired in 2012.

"I've heard him say hundreds of times, 'What do I know? I'm just some guy from the sticks of Oklahoma,'" Morris said at the time. "Nothing could be further from the truth. Teaching English well is incredibly hard, and making something so hard seem so simple is really a magic trick that only a genius can pull off as effortlessly as he does, and he's been doing it every day for 44 years. You often hear people talk about how great athletes make the game look so simple and easy, or how great musicians make a piece look so easy. Well, that's how I feel about Mr. Holderman. He's able to make it all look so easy."

Dawn Hemm, Sacred Heart's girls athletic coach, offered stories about Kermit's sense of humor, including his notorious antics of yelling at referees during the school's sporting events. When other people would look around in the stands to see who was yelling, he would always point his finger like it was someone else.

Hemm recounted TV viewing parties, baby showers, barbecues and other events Kermit participated in with her family over the years.

"Being with you was our ritual; the reason was never really important," she said.

Kermit Holderman is survived by his wife of 52 years, Susan; sons Zack and Dane; their spouses Kelley and Jackie; and his grandchildren Layla, Nash, Finnley and Connor.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to a scholarship fund in Kermit Holderman Scholarship Fund his honor. The funds will benefit students enrolled at Sacred Heart.

Carl Quinn, also based in Portola Valley, a software architect for the technology company Zoox, died of cardiac arrest caused by COVID-19 on March 31, according to a GoFundMe page set up for his wife. Quinn's family and friends declined to be interviewed and asked for privacy.

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Find comprehensive coverage on the Midpeninsula's response to the new coronavirus by the Almanac, Mountain View Voice and Palo Alto Online here.

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