‘Fearless’ school leader dies of coronavirus after two weeks in Texas hospital

A Texas school district is grieving over the sudden death of their superintendent, who died of COVID-19.

David Freeman, superintendent of Corpus Christi-area Flour Bluff Independent School District, was battling health issues for several months, according to the school district. His sister wrote that he was placed in the intensive care COVID-19 unit at an area hospital on July 20.

“We are heartbroken and grief stricken over the sudden loss of our fearless leader,” the school district wrote on its website.

Freeman was 46 years old, according to the Corpus Christi Caller Times. Freeman was put on a ventilator at the hospital and was getting bedside dialysis, his sister said.

Kim Barrientos, the CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of the Coastal Bend, where Freeman served as a board member and president, said Freeman “was always a positive, happy individual and everything he did focused around kids and youth.”

“You’re putting a face that everybody knows with something that’s going on,” she told KRIS-TV. “The pandemic’s out there. It’s real. it doesn’t discriminate against people.”

Freeman leaves behind his wife, Cassie, and three children — Callie, Brock and Jenna, the school district said.

Before becoming the Flour Bluff superintendent in 2019, Freeman served as the associate superintendent in Wichita Falls and superintendent in Montague and London, Texas, a bio states. He had degrees from Midwestern State University, University of North Texas and Texas Wesleyan University.

School Board President Shirley Thornton said she and her colleagues are “experiencing great sorrow,” according to the Caller Times.

“Dr. Freeman saw each obstacle as an opportunity to shine, and he would expect that of all us right now” she said.

The first day of school in the district will be Aug. 13.