Scholarship Honors a Legacy of Caring

After graduating from Eastern Washington University with an education degree in 2008, John Delbridge and his college sweetheart, Tessa, moved to the Tri-Cities area. There, they embarked on careers teaching students in alternative and high-need high schools.

John taught students facing the greatest barriers—poverty, trauma, incarceration and more. Tessa says that “for John, these weren’t reasons to walk away — they were reasons to show up.”

John grew up a well-loved only child in a middle-income household in Cheney, she says. And yet he found a way to connect with students experiencing diverse hardships.

“In college he worked at Crosswalk, the youth shelter in Spokane. He didn’t have shared experience with kids experiencing homelessness,” Tessa says of her late husband. “But, he never judged their lifestyle, their looks, or their circumstance. It’s hard to articulate, but he’d just meet them where they were at in life and go from there.”

Known as “Mr. Delbridge” to his students, John taught reading and English to alternative high school students in the North Franklin school district and also worked with juvenile offenders at Camp Outlook, a program offered as an alternative to incarceration.

Interacting with the teenagers came naturally to John, but it wasn’t always easy. When, for example, a former student was shot and killed after his release from the program. Knowing how hard the student had worked to straighten out his life — it was especially tough.

Back then, Tessa, who now works as the director of presidential communications for EWU, taught English at nearby Connell High School, where as many as 65% of the students are from low income households.

She recalls teaching students who held down difficult jobs to help support their families, or missed classes to interpret for their Spanish-speaking parents at appointments. Others missed chunks of the school year because their parents were migrant farmworkers.

The best days at school for the couple, Tessa recalls, were when they stood together to cheer as their students received their diplomas. “We loved going to their graduations, especially the alternative school graduation. It was a small town, so you knew what those students overcame to get there. A high school diploma was life-changing,” Tessa says.

Soon after one of those happy commencements everything changed. In June 2015, three days after the end of the school year, John suffered sudden coronary heart failure. He had no known history of heart disease. The doctor suspected a recent bout of the flu had led to undetected myocarditis — an inflammation of his heart. John was just 30 years old when he died.

In an instant, Tessa became a widow and solo parent to their two-year-old daughter, Zoë.

It has been a decade since the family lost John, but his legacy will continue through the recently endowed John S. Delbridge Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship supports future educators, social workers and advocates who share John’s deep commitment to helping youth overcome adversity.

“I wanted [the scholarship] for Eastern students from all backgrounds and experiences. Anyone  who is going into high-need areas with disadvantaged youth,” Tessa says.

The scholarship is essentially a “thank you” to students who, like John, are dedicated to serving in high-need settings, Tessa says, often for lower pay and little recognition. “I want to celebrate them, and lend some financial assistance, for choosing a path that’s going to have a lot of difficult days but is critical for our society.”

The work is hard, but the capacity to make a difference is worth it.

As Tessa dealt with indescribable grief, she got a strong sense of the difference he’d made when a carload of his students arrived unexpectedly at his memorial service in Cheney to pay their respects.

“These were  students from the alternative high school who, on their own, crowded into a small car and drove over an hour and a half to get there. That was when you realize the impact he had, how much they cared about Mr. Delbridge.”

When Tessa started thinking about establishing a scholarship in John’s name, three years ago, she thought deeply about Eastern’s transformational role in the lives of students, and also, the lasting impact it has on its alumni.

Just a few months after becoming a young widow, Tessa and her preschool-age daughter found a welcoming community tailgating with her parents and their friends before football games on the red turf. Since Tessa and Zoë moved to Cheney in 2017, Zoë has grown up with the EWU community: attending sporting events, watching plays, participating in Satori and Girls+ STEM summer camps, and walking with EWU during the Pride Parade. “She can’t wait to be a Running Start student.”

Over the years, Tessa connected with Kelsey Hatch-Brecek, director of alumni relations, and learned more about the ways Eastern builds connections and the impact of scholarships on our students today. “So many of our alumni carry such deep pride and meaningful memories from their time at Eastern. The fact that they continue to show up, whether that’s supporting our students through scholarships or staying connected through events, says everything about the impact of this place and why our mission as a public university matters so much,” Kelsey says.

Tessa is a third-generation Eagle. Not surprisingly, many of those family members, including her parents, brother and uncle, and John’s parents, who she refers to as honorary Eagles, contributed to John’s memorial scholarship fund.

“‘Red runs deep’ is a literal statement for my family. My great grandmother graduated in 1918,” she says.

Tessa gratefully reflects on the support she and John received as college students from their families—support that allowed them to focus on their studies. “Both of our parents were able to pay tuition, and we graduated with no debt. We had jobs to cover living expenses, but I know my college experience was far less stressful than most.” The John S. Delbridge Memorial Scholarship reflects her desire to provide some of that same stability for other promising students at Eastern.

“I love that I have this ability to give back to Eastern and honor John in this way. I know he would approve.”

Visit EWU/Give to learn how you can support Eastern students as they work toward careers that change lives and strengthen communities.