NORTHAMPTON — Kim Bierwert was a savant.

Not only was Bierwert an expert on all things aquatic sports as the former longtime head coach of the Smith College swimming and diving team, but Bierwert was also a scholar in the classroom as a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in economics.

Perhaps most importantly though, Bierwert was a one-of-a-kind person who had the unique ability to connect with anyone.

“We were on our honeymoon, we went to Hawaii, and we were walking along this coastline that was a park and there was a huge family there having this big family picnic with a gorgeous view of the sunset and everything,” said Lou Ann (Louie) Bierwert, Kim’s wife. “There was a car there that was an old Volkswagen Bug. He has a ‘62 Bug that he bought from his mom, his mom was the original owner, he bought it from his mom when he was 16 and he’s had it ever since. It’s about 10,000 miles away from a million miles ... We see this bug and we did a walk-around of the Bug and they had a karaoke machine in the pavilion and the guy on the mic says, ‘It’s a ‘63, I’ll give it to you for $5,000,’ and he says, ‘I have a ‘62.’ They came over and started talking and then he invited us to just join them for their family meal and everything and we sang karaoke and had a blast. It was this true organic experience on our honeymoon.”

Biewert, 74, died suddenly on Saturday, Feb. 22, at Cooley Dickinson Hospital. On Thursday, friends and family gathered to pay their respects during calling hours at Czelusniak Funeral Home. Burial in Spring Grove Cemetery will be private and held at the convenience of the family.

Growing up, Bierwert was an active child and quickly gravitated toward swimming. He saw success at Northampton High School, earning Western Mass. All-Star team honors, then enjoyed a stellar four-year career with the Engineers in Boston, where he also competed in pole vault and javelin as a member of the track and field team.

Bierwert’s time at MIT is when he gained an appreciation for the techniques required in coaching swimming and, diving, specifically.

“He would really observe the diving coach working with the divers and really tune into the physics and science of the sport,” said Karen Bierwert, Kim’s younger sister. “He was tuned into really focusing on the characteristics of the coach.”

Karen Bierwert added that Bruce Morton, the former Northampton Swim Club instructor, was Kim Bierwert’s biggest coaching influence.

Bierwert’s coaching journey began at his high school alma mater in the 1970s, before taking the reins at Smith in 1977. Bierwert stayed with the Pioneers for 42 years and racked up numerous honors, including coaching seven Smith swimmers in their journeys across the English Channel.

“Kim is an institution in and of himself,” Smith’s Director of Athletics and Recreation Kristin Hughes said. “His impact for students and the community and really all age groups, it was sort of his reputation when I was a grad student here and I returned 30 years later and nothing has changed. He’s still doing the same thing at the same level.

“His classic greeting to everybody no matter what time of day it was, was always ‘good morning,’ which I always loved about him,” Hughes said.

As the Smith head coach, Bierwert’s teams earned the nickname “The Wild Bunch,” as a reference to the fact that bananas grow in groups, but are each individuals. That characterized Bierwert’s special coaching style.

“I think one of his earliest swimming lessons, he was teaching to little kids, he told them to make sure that they eat a banana everyday, it’s really good for you, it’s going to give you a lot of energy, they’re really good,” Louie Bierwert said. “A girl came to the class the next day crying saying her mom didn’t have time to go to the grocery store and get bananas so she hadn’t had her banana. He was like ‘oh my gosh, it’s fine.’ So bananas became a thing with the Smith team.”

Bierwert’s coaching ways also translated well to his adult swimming lessons as part of the Masters, Fitness and Triathlete (simply called the Masters Swim) program.

“He made each swimmer feel, and I know because I’ve talked to other swimmers, he made each swimmer feel like his day wouldn’t be complete unless he helped you individually,” Susan Kan, who was coached by Bierwert for many years, said.

“He had, really, a genius for timing so that your workout wasn’t interrupted by his feedback, but he could do it so fast, like when you just had a few seconds on the wall before your next interval started,” Kan continued. “This is the genius part, he could keep track of everybody’s place in the workout… he could keep track of each lane, which had its own workout, because we’re divided by pace, skill level. Not only each workout for each lane, but each person in each lane, I swear, felt like he was just paying attention to them.”

Despite having great success in coaching some extremely talented swimmers, Bierwert was also just as happy to help people who weren’t looking to set world records in the pool.

“One story he told was that he was coaching someone and he was giving them all these mechanical pointers and the person just said like, ‘I’m just here to get my heart-rate up, it’s not that important that I swim fast,’ and he totally accepted that,” said Seth Gottlieb, who was coached by Bierwert as a child, then again as an adult with the Masters Swim program. “Even though that would be totally not what he would do because most of his swimmers try to max out their performance, but he was also really supportive of people just being in the water and getting some exercise.”

Bierwert’s abilities in the pool were passed down to his two children, Lindsay and Joel, as both swam competitively during their entire childhoods and into their teenage years. Lindsay’s career extended into the college ranks with Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York as a four-year member of the Hawks’ swim team. Joel was a member of Auburn University’s dive team his freshman year.

When asked about their fondest memories of their father, Lindsay and Joel recounted moments that highlighted his unabashed love for aquatics plus his impeccable capacity to bond with the people he cared about.

“Every summer we went camping in Martha’s Vineyard and so I think just those summers of him teaching us how to wind surf and just being so in awe of him and his skill-level in wind surfing and then getting to play on the beach and rest and relax and hangout was really special,” Lindsay Bierwert said.

“Probably my favorite one was the first time I ever had a Coke,” Joel Bierwert said. “We woke up early in the morning, it was a Sunday, and we were outside. He had just chopped down a tree, so we were splitting a bunch of wood, I was probably 10 years old at the time and so I was just chopping logs with him and stuff like that and we were walking back up and he was like ‘Do you want a Coke?’ Because my dad’s favorite drink was Coca-Cola, he always drank Coca-Cola’s every single day. We always had like at least 10 two liters in the house and so I was like ‘of course I want a Coke.’ It was my first time having an ice-cold Coke with him and we just watched NASCAR and that was one of my favorite memories.”

Ryan Ames can be reached at rames@gazettenet.com.