GLOVERSVILLE, N.Y. — Wearing blue scrubs and a surgical mask, Denny Darby was one of nine health care workers photographed April 17 for a panel of images encouraging people to stay home to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Just 31 days later, Darby, a 31-year-old certified nursing assistant at the Fulton Center nursing home in this city, was admitted to a hospital in Albany after he became gravely ill from COVID-19. On May 20, he died from the infection.

The Rev. Bonnie Orth, pastor of the Mayfield Presbyterian Central Church, who encountered Darby as she ministered to congregants at Fulton Center, said he was someone with passion for his work.

“I don’t think it was just a job for Denny,” Orth said after presiding over his funeral. “It was a calling. He was obviously called to that position.”

New York is the country’s epicenter for COVID-19, and the biggest clusters of cases have emerged in group living facilities, with nursing homes leading the category. Some 6,000 people in the state have died at nursing homes since early March — a tally that does not include patients who died after being taken to hospitals.

The state Department of Health, which recently mandated that nursing home workers be tested for COVID-19 twice a week, does not track fatalities by occupation. But those familiar with people like Darby say they are unsung heroes in the battle against COVID-19.

“They do great work under daunting and trying circumstances,” said Richard Mollot, director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, a group that advocates for nursing home patients. He cited federal data showing nursing jobs in the facilities rank among those with greatest risk of injury and illness.

A nursing assistant, Darby regularly fed and bathed elderly and infirm patients. He worked with some residents who had tested positive for COVID-19, according to his cousin, Elizabeth Duplago, and others who knew him.

“He was not going to let his patients lack for care,” Duplago said. “He made a promise he was going to go in there every day and take care of those people.”

When he started as a nursing home worker about a decade ago, she said, Darby probably doubted he would have stuck with it. The work doesn’t pay much.

But he found satisfaction in improving the lives of the patients.

“He ended up dying from doing what he loved to do,” she said.

Darby lived with his companion, Staci Morrison, in Gloversville, a small city about 25 miles from Schenectady that was once home to a leather tanning industry. He was a father figure to Morrison’s two young sons, his cousin said.

Darby rooted for the New York Yankees. When he died, coworkers encouraged each other to wear a Yankees cap or jersey to honor him.

In Gloversville, Darby’s death is a grim reminder that COVID-19 is not just a threat in New York City. Mourners at his funeral stood outside because of virus-driven restrictions.

“Denny followed his heart by doing what he loved doing,” the pastor said. “And, boy, we need that in this country now because we have so many folks in nursing homes who really need loving care.”

Joe Mahoney is the New York state reporter for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at jmahoney@cnhi.com.