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Bill Holm was a passionate man who invited those who knew him and those who read him to share in his passions.

Holm, 65, of Minneota died Wednesday at Avera Heart Hospital in Sioux Falls, S.D., Rehkamp-Horvath Funeral Home of Marshall said.

Thursday, it was evident in the response in southwest Minnesota and across the state, people were sharing through e-mail, in person and on Facebook what Holm had shared of himself.

"Oh, how he was loved and respected," said Mary Buysse, the librarian at Minneota's public library.

Holm died of complications from pneumonia after he was hospitalized when he collapsed in the Sioux Falls airport on a return trip from Arizona.

Holm retired from the English department at Southwest Minnesota State University in December of 2007 after 27 years. He won the McKnight Distinguished Artist award which included a $50,000 stipend in May. Holm had published at least 10 books of essays and poems, many to critical acclaim. Among them are "Boxelder Bug Variations," "Coming Home Crazy," "The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere on Earth," and ''The Windows of Brimnes.'' Friends and colleagues likened Holm to authors Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman and Mark Twain for his sense of place and his moral stances including his intolerance with injustice.

"I'm just so heartsick," Holm's friend and former editor Emilie Buchwald said.

Buchwald worked with Holm for 25 years while she was his editor, first at Milkweed Chronicles and then Milkweed Editions.

Holm's death comes just as he had more time to write in retirement, Buchwald said. "I think he will be recognized as one of the most important writers to come out of this part of the country," Buchwald said.

A sense of place was important to Holm, said Milkweed Editions Publisher Daniel Slager. Milkweed published many of Holm's books.

As did Thoreau and Whitman, Holm wrote of his surroundings, Slager said.

Holm wrote "as if someone were talking to you," Slager said. "That is often attempted but rarely accomplished."

Holm was often indignant at injustice and wrote about it, Slager said.

But he did so "with tremendous tenderness and tremendous sensitivity."

Holm spent 27 years at SMSU and former student and now SMSU employee Marcy Olson said Holm fostered a love of literature and writing with so many students.

Olson said her Facebook page, an Internet community connection, quickly became part of an exchange among Holm's former students Thursday.

"Everybody is telling a story, telling our story," Olson said. "We're talking about people from classes 20 years ago. This man really touched my life. I can't believe he's gone."

When Holm read a student's work in class and said "you've hit paydirt"- that was a sign of good work, Olson said.

"The students loved him," longtime colleague and friend Jim Zarzana, an SMSU English professor, said. "Students lined up to take his classes."

"Bill retired a year ago in December and in so many ways, he represented the soul of the department," Zarzana said.

Holm's soul was in the English department at SMSU but it was also in Minneota, in southwest Minnesota and in Iceland, where he spent many summers.

"That's where his soul was," Slager said of southwest Minnesota. "He saw the great beauty in it."

He was Minneota's big man with his big hands and his expansive laugh. Friends and neighbors knew Holm lived his life with gusto.

"I go to the same church as Bill," Buysse said. "When he was there the singing was wonderful. You always knew when he was there."

You always knew he was there because he invited you in. Buchwald said Holm would draw hundreds to his readings at sites around the U.S.

That is unheard of, she said.

The Minneota community has felt the need to come together in their grief.

People have dropped in at the library throughout the day Thursday just to talk about Bill, Buysse said.

"People have come in and said 'I just can't work,'" Buysse said. "So, they come in and visit."

Those face-to-face encounters were happening Thursday, but so were the encounters through technology such as e-mails and Facebook.

"I think Bill would be 'holy (expletive)' at the Facebook response," Olson said.

Holm was well-known for his shunning of technology.

Holm wrote much, but typed little of it.

Sandy Mosch, a longtime SMSU administrative assistant in the English department, said that she typed Bill's books and his poems for years.

"He wrote them in longhand," she said.

The man whose fingers rarely, if ever, touched a computer keyboard, had impressive skill with a piano.

Daniel Rieppel, an SMSU music professor who performed occasionally with Holm as part of a duet called "Big Guys with Grand Pianos" said, "I am disconsolate and choked with sorrow by the news of my friend Bill's death. Although Bill had many dear friends, all over the world, he was my dearest friend. I will miss the spiritual and musical intimacy that he and I shared during these last years."

Rieppel lost a friend and more.

"He was my western Minnesota brother, my intellectual mentor and the human being to which, save for my wife Julieta, I was closest. I will rue his absence forever," Rieppel said.

Zarzana said that Holm, as a noted writer himself, supported the writings of his colleagues in the English department and also supported students' writings.

"We'll miss him. It's a big loss," said Mary Furgeson of rural Minneota. "I think we are going to learn just how well known Bill is all over (the world).'