An educator. A lawyer. A shop owner. Meet some of the people COVID-19 has taken from us.

They came from different walks of life, with different passions and personalities.

One loved to fish. One was a father with a delightful gift of gab. Another earned both a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star in the Korean War. Another ran a toy and clothing shop.

All but one were over the age of 70, and all represent the human loss from the COVID-19 pandemic, heartbreaking examples that, behind the daily peppering of case numbers, curve trends and restrictions imposed and lifted, is a very real, human loss.

While our days continue to be filled with so much uncertainty, one thing is clear: We’ve lost people who loved and were loved, people who touched lives in concrete, tangible ways. And they are deeply missed.

Here are some of their stories.

BOB DEMA: Educator, war veteran, sheriff’s office volunteer

Bob Dema took care of everything and everyone he knew.

When he lived in New York, Dema was an umpire, then coach, then manager, then president of the Little League baseball program. He was an assistant Boy Scout Leader and a volunteer firefighter. Every summer, he took his sons, Larry and Jim, on adventures to fish in Canada or to Disney World.

In Connecticut, he became the executive director of a halfway house named the Open Door Club, and continued his career as an educator.

When he retired to Marshland Road on Hilton Head Island with his wife, Joan, he brought with him his Purple Heart and Bronze Star, recognition from his Army service in the Korean War. He spent his time on Hilton Head on the water, checking in near-daily with friends and volunteering at the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.

Dema died April 3 of complications related to coronavirus. He was 86.

“This man was a total rock, he took care of everybody,” Dema’s son, Larry, told The Island Packet. “He always was a volunteer, and he always wanted to help people. That was my father.”

Larry said although Dema was the youngest of four children, he was the one who kept the family together.

His stories of getting caught in storms on his fishing boat left people he didn’t even know in stitches, and Dema warmed the room with his friendly demeanor and graceful way of breaking the ice.

A former superintendent of Garden City Schools in New York, Dema led a life centered on education and was known for his thoughtful advice to future generations. He was a master instructor for the New York State Department of Education, a doctoral mentor for Columbia University, an adjunct off-campus Instructor for NYU and an associate instructor for Hofstra University on Long Island.

As a couple, Bob and Joan, his wife of 62 years, were adventurous and friendly. They took several cruises, and always came back with new friends, Jim Dema said of his parents. Joan Farrell Dema died in August 2016.

“All the positive things I have: my work ethic, my morality, my compassion... it does come from my father,” Jim Dema said. “He was cut from the cloth of the generation before him.”

Dema’s immense love of public service brought him to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office as a volunteer in his retirement.

Sheriff P.J. Tanner said Dema was considered family at the Sheriff’s Office, and his presence will be “dearly missed.”

— Katherine Kokal

RACHEL SOWERS: Beach lover, business owner, neighborhood mom

Rachel Sowers loved to walk on the beach.

“She always said if you ever have a problem, take it down to the beach and let the tide take it out,” said Charlie Faust, her daughter.

Sowers grew up in Connecticut, and her love of the beach, water and wildlife began on visits to her family’s summer home on Cape Cod.

She was able to return to those joys when she moved to Sea Pines on Hilton Head Island with her husband, Robert, in 1979.

Setting down roots, Sowers bought a business in Harbor Town: a children’s shop full of toys and clothes called “Le Petit Bateau.” She kept even busier, buying the Fashion Court next door in 1991.

In their down time, Sowers and her husband built a house on the May River in Bluffton. Her daughter said she named her river house “Lil’ Breeze.” The couple has three children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Living in Sea Pines was the final flourish of a life well spent. The couple lived in five cities and had over nine moves. But they made a home on Hilton Head.

“Everywhere she was, she left a positive mark on the community,” said Faust. “Whether it was to start a blood drive, scholarships for college, or being the neighborhood mom, she made a difference, and her friendships were deep.”

In April 2019, the couple sold their home in Sea Pines after nearly 42 years of living there and moved into the Seabrook retirement community, where Sowers quickly felt right at home.

Bouncing between working at the Harbor Town business and Seabrook, she fractured her hip in January, necessitating a move to the Fraser Health Center nursing home nearby for rehabilitation.

Sowers and her family thought the physical therapy and rest would mean an eventual return to her old life. But in mid-March, the Fraser Health Center — like many nursing homes — went under strict quarantine and prohibited visitors as coronavirus began its spread.

On a Monday, her family got a call that she was being taken by ambulance to Hilton Head Hospital. Coronavirus rules at the hospital meant her family was not allowed to see Sowers there, either. By Wednesday she had tested positive for COVID-19, and she died Saturday, April 4. She was 89.

Her family was never able to be with her, not even in her final moments.

“The virus has broken so many lives in so many ways,” her daughter said, “and for our family, it broke our hearts and a generation.”

“She was loved and adored by her family, and the space she left can never be filled,” Faust said. “But she left them the gift of memories.”

— Jake Shore

GEORGE GROVE: Church leader, author, philosopher

George Grove’s face might be familiar to some, because it appeared in glossy regional magazines while holding a redfish or trout in a quintessential Lowcountry scene.

The photos perhaps belied a label of fisherman. The occasional fishing trips were more about friendship than the catches, though there were many.

“The fishing was incidental to it,” said Grove’s longtime friend John Gribb, a former fishing guide and outdoors writer on Lady’s Island who snapped Grove’s pictures to accompany his pieces. “We just enjoyed spending time with each other.”

Augustus George Grove, who went by George, died at Beaufort Memorial Hospital on March 30. Grove, 81 and of Lady’s Island, had been healthy before contracting the virus with no known issues, said Mary Lee Grove, his wife of 43 years.

He was an intellect and a teacher, fairly private but personable and engaging, a friend to a variety of people, said those who knew him.

Grove was active in his churches, a deep thinker and writer trained on spiritual subjects.

He wrote a book, “The Rich Young Ruler,” that was a collection of fictional accounts of Biblical stories. He was an ordained elder and taught classes on scripture in church.

Grove was from Atlanta and mentored by Ken Boa, the head of an organization called Reflections Ministries, Mary Lee Grove said.

He attended Oxford College, part of Emory University, and earned a masters degree in political science from the University of Georgia. After serving in the Air Force, Grove started his own telecommunications business.

The marriage was the second for the couple, and they have six sons between them. Grove retired to Beaufort in 2002 and was a longtime member at Sea Island Presbyterian before joining Parish Church of St. Helena several years ago.

While at Sea Island Presbyterian, Grove was a knowledgeable and integral part of the church and taught Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, said Sea Island’s longtime pastor, Steve Keeler. Grove led church retreats and served on committees within the regional Presbytery.

“I trusted him as a friend and a mentor,” Keeler said. “We could openly talk and visit. It was good to have somebody like him who was regarded as a patriarch of faith in our congregation.”

He was active in Beaufort Rotary Club and a docent one day a week at Parish Church of St. Helena, helping guide visitors who stopped by the historic property and volunteering at a thrift store associated with the church.

Grove was also active in a North Carolina church where the couple has a summer home, his friend Gribb said.

“He was an intellect,” Mary Lee Grove said. He “loved talking to friends, philosophizing on life and spirituality.”

— Stephen Fastenau

BRIAN GIBBES: Lawyer, theater lover with gift of gab

Brian Gibbes had a passion for improving the world, his wife, Florry, said.

And he used his “gift of gab” and positive, resilient attitude to do that.

Born in New York, Gibbes spent much of his adult life in South Carolina as a prominent lawyer, husband and father to two daughters.

“He’d do anything for his girls, including me,” Florry said. “He always felt that family was so important. He was a very good father.”

A lover of family, politics and music, Gibbes and his family moved to Hilton Head Island in 1982. He was quite active in the community, Florry said.

Gibbes died April 12 of complications related to coronavirus. He was 71.

The couple met while studying at Syracuse University. Gibbes then graduated from the University of South Carolina College of Law in 1975 and served in the U.S. Army Reserves.

After leaving the military, Gibbes served as senior assistant attorney general and director of criminal appeals in Columbia, S.C., where he was one of the founders of the city’s Council on Child Abuse, Florry said.

He ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general in 1982. During that campaign, Florry gave birth to their oldest daughter, Courtney.

For his work fighting child abuse, Gibbes received the Sertoma Service to Mankind Award, Florry said.

He lived on Hilton Head for the past 37 years and was instrumental in founding the Seahawk Theater Guild at Hilton Head High School because of his daughter’s love of theater and music, Florry said.

That love of music carried over to First Presbyterian Church on Hilton Head, where he was an active member in choir and theater groups, his wife said. He had some “funny roles in plays,” she said.

“Brian was always a really positive, can-do person,” Florry said. “He was very positive, even when he was very, very ill. He loved to talk. He was an intellectual with the gift of gab who could talk endlessly on any topic, especially on politics.”

— Kacen Bayless

Others who have passed away

In all, 13 individuals with Beaufort or Jasper County ties have been identified as having passed away due to complications from COVID-19.

Not every family wanted to talk about their loved one for this story. Some wanted more time to process their emotions; some just wanted privacy. The Packet and Gazette are not naming victims unless the families have given us their blessing to do so.

Much of the following information was taken from public obituaries. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control released minimal information about those who died.

• A Bluffton and Hilton Head Island man who died April 7 in Bradenton, Florida, was a longtime oral surgeon in Beaufort County. He attended church in Bluffton and was a member of both Hilton Head and Bluffton Rotary Clubs, and also the Country Club of Hilton Head. His obituary said he played on two USTA tennis teams. He graduated in 1960 from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and was a past chief resident at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and was a Navy veteran of Vietnam. He held the rank of commander upon retirement.
• An 80-year-old Okatie resident who died April 19 in Bluffton was retired from the television and radio company he co-owned and operated with his father and brother in Massachusetts. He was a U.S. Navy veteran and suffered from Parkinson’s disease in the last years of his life.
• A 72-year-old man from Burton, no information available, died March 31.
• An 83-year-old woman from Lady’s Island, no information available, died April 7.
• A 75-year-old man from Bluffton, no information available, died April 9.
• A 93-year-old man from Bluffton, no information available, died April 13.
• A 60-year-old woman from Ridgeland, no information available, died April 19.
• An 80-year-old man from Yemassee, no information available, died April 23.
• An 84-year-old man from Beaufort, no information available, died April 28.

This story was originally published May 8, 2020 at 11:08 AM.