Family Story: The Philbrick Family

By Jeff Philbrick

Our Jesse Remington High School family story is perhaps a bit unique, in that Kate, my wife, and my involvement began before our children were born! For us, JRHS was first a visionary mission opportunity we felt the Lord was calling us to, and many years later, a place for our children to be educated. We founded and opened the school the same year our first child was born. Those were wild times, demanding extreme faith from us, trying to figure out marriage, parenting, all the while trying to make a living. 

Our children grew up essentially as missionary kids, as they were part of every up and down of JRHS, even to this day. As children, they attended every school event we did, and at times, were recruited for various roles in student projects. Our oldest child, Thomas, entered the school in 2007, and our youngest child, Joe, graduated from the school in 2023. The middle three (Anna, Silas, Eleanore) as well as two International students that we welcomed to our home (Louise and Melody) all were part of the school in these years. 

So, Kate and I have a long-range view of JRHS, offer the following perspectives on our experience bringing kids through: 

Education is not supposed to be “easy” nor necessarily “fun”, but through it all, we can look back and see how our kids loved their JRHS years. Like any large family, we had our challenges inherent with raising kids to love the Lord, love one another, and do their work. Now that they are all beyond high school, they look back so fondly to what they had, both as a family unit in the school, and the life formative and enriching experiences that came from Jesse Remington High School.

JRHS was wonderfully and broadly preparatory for them. In our case, all of our kids went on to post-secondary education and found themselves well prepared for their next path. Today, Thomas is a lawyer, Anna is a nurse, Silas is a contractor, Eleanore is a teacher and missionary, Joey is a firefighter, Louise is an accountant, and Melody is a nurse. These diverse and fruitful pursuits all have ties back to JRHS, where God used people and events to connect the dots in each child’s heart and mind. As parents, we are eternally grateful for that. 

JRHS offered a real-world view of the church, the Gospel, and life. At JRHS, our children were trained and prepared for what life would hold out ahead of them in terms of relationships, further learning, career decisions, and more. For Kate and me, the strong desire of our hearts has always been that our kids would grow up to know and love God, and to find and follow Christ in the center of their lives. JRHS, through extremely unique and valuable people and experiences, was like a training center for them to try on adult life in a safe, nurturing, and productive way. 

Thank you Jesse Remington High School for the love, the preparation, and the training you offered my children. They are SO much better for it!