By Sarah Fuelleman
When the worst news of his life hit, Jerome Koch made a decision that will benefit future teachers for years to come.
His beloved wife Jean was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 2019 and lived with progressively deteriorating physical health until October 2021.
To honor Jean and her mother, Edna Lewis, Koch chose to make a gift to create the Jean and Edna Lewis Teacher Education Scholarship at the UW–Madison School of Education.
“I was fortunate and forever changed for good because Jean Lewis was my wife and Edna Lewis was my mother-in-law,” Koch says.
Although neither attended UW–Madison, Koch did. And he wanted to celebrate that connection while hoping to inspire future teachers to emulate his wife and mother-in-law.
“Teaching was their calling,” he says. “They devoted their lives to imparting wisdom and, in all things, modeling gentle decency. This scholarship honors their memory. It is intended to inspire recipients to carry these life lessons forward, both in their own lives and through them, to those who become their students.”
Before she passed away, Koch asked Jean if establishing this scholarship would be OK with her.
“I think if it were just in her name, she would have said ‘no,’” Koch says.
She gave the idea her blessing and the first student was awarded this past fall.
Koch chose UW–Madison because of its outstanding teacher education programs.
Koch and Jean Lewis were friends for 15 years before they married. One of her attributes that made her a good friend and partner also made her an excellent teacher and school counselor, he recalls. “If she was in a room with you, you felt more emotionally safe.”
Jean’s superpower, Koch says, was picking up strays.
“As a counselor, she asked teachers to send even their most difficult students to her and she’d find a way to bring them some peace,” Koch says.
Jean stocked her office with a basket of foam bricks that kids could throw to get out their frustration. She understood students were often not angry, but frightened — and she wanted them to feel safe.
“Jean wasn’t trying to save children,” Koch says. “She was trying to give them the skills to save themselves.”
The skills Jean had were taught by her mother.
“She could deliver a hard message with caring and empathy,” Koch says of his wife.
Because of Jean and Edna’s caring as educators, countless children’s lives have been changed for good, he says.
“This scholarship is the only thing I know how to do that’s worthy of who she was to me, and who Jean’s mother was to her,” Koch says. “They both lived and shared wisdom, courage, and empathy, always with gentle kindness.”