The Gift of Sustenance

Nanette and John Gibbs

As a high school student at the Academy of Mount St. Ursula in Bronx, N.Y., Nanette Jew Gibbs ’75 applied to Loyola University New Orleans hoping to pursue a career in music. Monetary constraints and a full music scholarship led her to attend Fordham University which, at the time, offered a joint music program with The Juilliard School.

However, it soon became apparent that Nanette needed to study within a full-fledged music program. She noted that the Jesuits had a college of music—a rarity for a Catholic school at the time—and left her native New York for Loyola. She arrived “sight unseen.”

Educated by the Ursulines, Nanette felt that the Jesuit-run Loyola was a good fit for her.

“I liked the small campus,” Nanette says of Loyola. “I was very impressed with the college of music and the talent there—which far exceeded my own.” A talented and accomplished harpist and flutist, she recalls her classmates—who included extraordinary musicians such as master drummer Johnny Vidacovich, vocalist Leah Chase-Kamata and trombonist Mike Genevay, who played with Pete Fountain for more than 30 years—as “a highly creative group.”

During her time at Loyola, she took every opportunity to get to know and experience New Orleans.

“I tell people that I received two degrees while I was at Loyola—my degree in music, and my degree in culture,” Nanette says. “Having red beans and rice at somebody’s house and seeing how people went about things—for me it was really a wonderful memory to have had that.”

Nanette says, “The thing that changed my life was meeting Ms. Ruth Renaud, Loyola’s music librarian at the time.” Ruth proved to be the inspiration for Nanette’s future career path in librarianship. The two forged a friendship that remained in place until Ruth’s death in 2004.

After graduating from Loyola with degrees in music performance and education, Nanette returned to New York to obtain her master’s degree in library science. She then moved to Washington D.C. and was hired by the Library of Congress, where she met her husband, John T. Gibbs.

“His desk was next to mine, and when he opened his drawer I saw all of these New Orleans restaurant menus,” she says with a smile. Her interest was piqued, and so the conversation began.

Nanette’s dual degrees came in handy when the couple’s two children, Thomas and Diana, were little. She left the Library of Congress and became a librarian and a teacher, teaching international baccalaureate music and advanced placement music theory. She taught for quite a while before finally retiring from the school system and finding her way back to the Library of Congress.

“Right around the time I was retiring from the school system, my husband became very ill. He was near death, and we didn’t have our papers in order,” she says. “When it came to setting up a trust, we both agreed upon naming Loyola as the beneficiary.”

Years later, Nanette and her husband remain happy with their decision and are relieved to have such matters settled.

“Let’s face it, it’s never fun for any of us to think about our mortality,” she admits. “But it is nice to think there is a legacy.”

While wills are indeed an excellent tool for making clear your final intentions, she says, all related documents must go through probate, but a trust can be processed fairly quickly.

“You set up a trust and it becomes a part of the family tradition, even if it were a revocable trust,” Nanette says. “Our children know what our intentions are and what we want.”

She advises alumni still in the decision-making process about such matters.

“Don’t leave this instrument of your well-being and your family’s well-being to another time, do it now,” Nanette says.

With estate plans settled, Nanette and her husband are assured of being able to honor and nurture something very special to them—education. Both John and Nanette view education as a gift that sustains one throughout a lifetime.

“And no one is better at educating than a Jesuit,” Nanette says. Her son is also a graduate of Loyola, and she stays connected as the Washington D.C. alumni chapter president.

“We used to have a saying at Mount St. Ursula that ‘the sun never sets on an Ursuline girl,’” she says. “I don’t think the sun ever sets on a Jesuit-educated individual, either.”

If you would like to know more about making a gift to Loyola like Nanette and John Gibbs have, please contact Kevin Maney 504-861-5442 or kmaney@loyno.edu.