Herman Darrel Herrington, beloved husband, father, grandfather and friend, left this world on Jan. 28, 2017, at the age of 88 to join the heavenly angel band of teachers, fishermen and hunters.
Herman, better known to his family as “Sonny Boy,” was born on Oct. 29, 1928, to Herman Otis Herrington and Mary Lucille Coble Herrington in Laredo.
His parents moved to Rockport when he was young and it was there, fishing the bays and the gulf with his father and brothers, that he developed his love of fishing. While Baffin Bay was his favorite fishing hole, he was known to drop a hook in any pond of water. The family moved to Alice where he graduated from William Adams High School. When medical deferment prevented his enlisting in the U.S. Air Force, he enrolled in Texas A&I, graduating with a degree in agricultural science education.
Herman’s teaching career in high school vocational agriculture, which spanned more than three decades, began in Ben Bolt in 1954. During his twelve years there, not only did he develop lifelong friendships, but he was respected for the excellent program he developed which saw his “Ag Boys” earn county and statewide honors in the FFA program.
His last two decades of teaching Ag were in Premont where his students were successful in Ag contests both on the local, state and national level. For years, he was a mainstay at the Jim Wells county fair and stock show and his students were known as the ones who set the bar high in all areas of competitions. It was in Premont that girls were first permitted to take Ag classes which provided the opportunity for his two youngest daughters to excel in the FFA program. The respect he earned from fellow educators, as well as the students he taught and their parents was the basis of friendships formed across the state that lasted throughout his life.