Lake Worth high school math teacher, 43, dies of coronavirus
Dieugrand Nazaire was a quiet, thoughtful teacher during his two years at Lake Worth Community High School. He didn’t dress up with funny ties or write jokes on the whiteboard to capture his students’ attention. His kind heart did that, they say.
“Mr. Naz,” as his students affectionately called him, could be found after hours tutoring members of his geometry class in Creole, his native language from Haiti, checking up on their lives and offering extra credit or a few spare dollars when they needed help.
Nazaire, 43, died April 22 at Delray Medical Center of COVID-19.
Johana Cruz, an 18-year-old graduating senior, was in Nazaire’s geometry class last year. She credits his excellent, clear teaching with dispelling her dislike for math.
Normally a straight-A student, Cruz said her teacher noticed right away when her grades started to slide under the pressure of her junior year. He was the one who reached out and asked what was wrong. Cruz said she hoped to return his kindness with a warm thanks once school ended this May. But coronavirus took away her chance.
“It felt like he was a parent to me,” Cruz said. “If it wasn’t for the coronavirus, I would get to see Mr. Naz at my graduation. But I don’t.”
Nazaire’s colleagues remembered him with similar affection. Many posted their condolences on Facebook as his funeral was live-streamed April 28.
“He is truly an unsung hero,” said Marc Olius, a fellow geometry teacher and classroom neighbor one door away. “He always put the need of the students above everything else.”
Elvis Epps, principal of Lake Worth Community High School, agreed.
“Mr. Nazaire knew how to connect with his students; he knew what it took to reach every student in his classroom,” Epps said. “I was honored to have him on my campus.”
As a father, Nazaire was shy, jovial and stubborn, according to his eldest daughter, Sandy Nazaire. If his family took a road trip from their home in Delray Beach, he refused to listen to directions from the GPS. If his wife needed a new dress and shoes for church, he would help her pick them out at the mall early Sunday morning. If they attended a wedding, he would dance and call all his children to join in.
“He was very edifying, very supportive,” said Sandy, 24. “He definitely had a lot of patience.”
Sandy’s favorite memory with her dad was when he dropped her off for her first semester at the University of Central Florida. They arrived early, around 1 a.m., and couldn’t find the right dorm building. Waiting for the sun to rise, the pair spent the early-morning hours talking about the future, shared goals and the warm, fatherly pride he had for his first born.
Although Palm Beach County schools moved online at the end of March, Nazaire only spent a few days educating on screens before he collapsed while shopping April 2 and went to Delray Medical Center. Expecting to hear it was just a side effect of his diabetes, his daughter said, the family waited for him to return home the next day.
When he didn’t call, they started to worry. First, they dropped off a phone charger for him. Hours later, with no response, they reached out to a nurse to check on him and learned he was having trouble breathing.
Nazaire was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit the night of April 3 and placed on a ventilator for about two weeks, during which he tested positive for COVID-19. His left lung improved temporarily, and he was able to breathe on his own and even eat mashed potatoes for a few days before his illness took a sharp turn. Fever hit, and he was put back on a ventilator in the ICU.
The beloved geometry teacher and father died at the hospital early the next day, April 22, from COVID-19 infection. He is survived by his wife, Oriana; daughters, Sandy, Taneisha and Cherish; and sons, D-mitri, Isaac and Isiah.
Nazaire is one of 258 people in Palm Beach County to die from COVID-19, as of May 12.
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“Mr. Nazaire knew how to connect with his students; he knew what it took to reach every student in his classroom. I was honored to have him on my campus.”
Elvis Epps, principal of Lake Worth Community High School
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