Former Martin area pastor and high school basketball and baseball coach David Nightingale died of the COVID-19 virus Sunday evening at a Florida Hospital.

His son, Chad, posted on Facebook, “At approximately 6 p.m. Florida time, our father, who dedicated his life to the proclamation of the gospel in both action and word, finally got to meet our Savior Jesus Christ.”

Nightingale, who was pastor of Watson Bible Church and Corner Bible Church, died at a hospital in Hudson, Fla.

He was Martin High School baseball and basketball coach in the early 1990s. His son, Chip, who batted over .600 in his senior year in 1993, also lives in Hudson, Fla., and is a pastor with the Word of Life Fellowship in Hudson, Fla.

Marlene Leep last month posted the news of his admittance into a hospital on the Martin Community Facebook page. She posted, “Please pray for his family. Deb, his wife has it too, but is not hospitalized she is getting her appetite back and her coloring. She is not able to visit Dave at the hospital, this is hard on her. So we all need to be very careful out there…”