WHITE HOUSE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Another Tennessee teacher has died from complications of COVID-19. People in White House are mourning the loss of an impactful community member, teacher, and coach.
“He touched so many lives, from teaching to coaching, to being a member of this congregation,” his pastor Randy Sakach said.
White House High’s tennis coach and English teacher William ‘Bill’ Rappuhn, fell sick with COVID-19 and was hospitalized in recent weeks, according to his pastor.
“This community will come together as the people of White House, coming together to support one another, to care for one another — to show that same compassion that bill showed for so many different people- we will do the same,” said Sakach.
The health of Tennessee teachers and students has come under the microscope recently as the state faces a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases among school-aged kids and faculty members.
“Teachers have a very challenging job especially during the pandemic — primarily teachers are surrounded by unvaccinated individuals many of our Tennesseans are not vaccinated and large proportions of our children are unvaccinated,” Amy Gordon Bono, a Nashville Internal Medicine Physician said.
However, it is unknown at this time if Coach Rappuhn caught COVID in the classroom.
His passing came as a shock to many but he leaves behind a lasting legacy.
“I think it’s really sad for the community you can hear about it on the news of all these people dying but it always hits closer to home, when it’s somebody closer to home,” said Maya Searcy, a White House resident.
The family of Coach Rappuhn is comforted in the hope of seeing his face once again in heaven.
“With his family, we have said that over the last weeks or so — is that if something were to happen we know where he’s going not because of the goodness of bill but because of who he was in Christ, because of what Christ did for him so that we cling to we will see him again,” Sakach said.
A second-grade teacher and a teacher’s assistant died last month following complications from COVID-19 in Shelby County.
