Jonathan Gibson, seated at FM90 microphone, is backed up (from left) by his parents, Jill and Jeff, and his sisters, Jenna and Libby.

This leap year, Amarillo College is celebrating its purposeful values: Family, Fun, Innovation, Wow and Yes.

The unexpected discovery of a faded family photograph can trigger clarity of perspective even in the space of a single heartbeat. Please pardon Jeff Gibson if his own reverie spanned three such pulsations – one per triplet.

It was during a recent switch of offices at Amarillo College that Jeff unearthed the photo of his kids, Jenna, Jonathan and Libby, mere preschoolers when the picture was taken. The toddling trio is seen jockeying for the attention of clowns distributing balloons at a festive birthday party for then-AC President Bud Joyner.

Today those fraternal triplets are 19 years old and enrolled full time at AC.

“It makes you all of a sudden appreciate that AC has been the centerpiece of our entire family’s lives for what seems like forever,” says Jeff, AC’s director of media and technology resources. “If it wasn’t for AC, I don’t know where we’d be today.”

Jeff and his wife, Jill Gibson, an AC assistant professor of speech and mass media, became parents on Nov. 25, 1996. Far from the only family with plural employment in the AC Family – about three dozen married couples work at AC full time, as do myriad siblings, parents, children, in-laws, and other relations, both full and part time – the Gibsons are easily among the most remarkable.

“What is truly remarkable is that so many members of the same families want to be part of the important work we do at AC,” Ellen Green, vice president of marketing and communication, said. “I love that so many employees here encourage their spouses and other relations to apply at the College, that so many recognize the worth of our values.

“It also demonstrates just how family friendly AC is,” she said. “Of course Jill and Jeff Gibson and their triplets are an extra-special story.”

Not only are triplets somewhat of a rarity, but this particular set has frequented the College from infancy on – from diapers to adulthood. “I took them to the office when they were babies,” Jill recalls. “Over time, they located every vending machine on the property. And everyone here has been so supportive all along. So many came to the baby shower, so many wanted to know how they were doing.” 

And now, imbedding them in the institution all the more – in addition to their challenging academic pursuits – each is a part-time student worker at AC.

“I used to wonder why my parents, especially my mom, spent so much time up here and now I get that it’s because there is so much that needs to be done,” says Jenna, who puts in 10 hours a week helping organize the AC Food Pantry. “Now I spend a lot of time up here, too.”

Jenna and Jonathan are majoring in mass media, thus following in their parents’ footsteps; their mom teaches it, and their dad studied it when he himself attended AC back in the early 1980s.

Libby is pursuing the sciences and is leaning toward a career in healthcare. Even so, she has joined her sister on the staff of the student newspaper, and she also works 10 hours a week as a faculty assistant. Jonathan, meanwhile, takes turns as a disc jockey on the College radio station, just like his father had done as a student at AC, and he is paid for about 15 hours a week as a master control operator for Panhandle PBS.

The five Gibsons travel to and from AC at all hours of most days. Their schedules conflict and overlap. They pass each other coming and going to keep schedules as diverse as their many individual obligations.

“It seems like we spend a fair portion of every day group texting,” says Jill. “We’re always trying to coordinate five people commuting in three cars, day and night.

“But I have to admit now that the kids are in school here, I do see more of them. I have always liked working at AC for two reasons: my coworkers and my students. Now that our kids are here, well, that’s a third reason to enjoy my work.

“Even though families are not perfect and

don’t always get along, as dysfunctional as our families or even our College sometimes seem, we do find a way to make it work,” she said. “AC is definitely woven into the fabric of our lives, our kids’ lives. The role that the College and the AC Family have played in all our lives is simply huge.”

It doesn’t stop at the people, either; even the family’s pet attended dog obedience classes at the College, Jill noted.

Of course raising triplets is a challenge in and off itself, but Jeff recollects how they initially suspected quadruplets were on the way.

“At the first ultrasound exam they said they detected four heartbeats, and I think I either fainted or came close to hitting the floor,” Jeff said. “We went back about three weeks later and they said they were mistaken, that there were now only three heartbeats.

“I thought, only three, that’s all? Shoot, we can handle three.”

It’s all a matter of perspective