The students of Jefferson ISD lost one of their biggest champions earlier this week.
Lady Bulldog softball coach and JHS history teacher Robert Bristow lost his battle with COVID-19 on Tuesday, February 23rd.
He was 46 years old.
Mark Allen, JISD director of girls athletics, announced the loss on Facebook Wednesday.
“…This was a long hard battle and like the true competitor he was, he put up a hard fight,” Allen wrote. “If you knew Coach, you knew what kind of dedicated and dependable man he was,” Allen posted “He was a devoted husband to his loving wife… and a great father to their two children…”
Bristow was in his third year at JHS.
He came to the district from Eustice ISD.
“We brought him here to turn things around for the softball program,” Allen told the Jimp on Wednesday. “After having lost the entire season last year to the pandemic, we were excited to see what he would accomplish in 2021.”
Allen said Bristow was loved by his students and respected by his colleagues.
“He was one of the good guys,” Allen said. “I was truly blessed to have him on my coaching staff and am a better person for it… I was equally as blessed to be able to call him a friend… Coach had a big impact on the Lady Dawgs coaching staff. He loved his students in the classroom and his athletes on the field. I will never coach another game when I don’t think of him and how he made me a better coach and person.”
JHS head baseball coach Tyler Foster said, “It’s a loss being felt throughout the community— that’s for sure. But, his students are taking the loss especially hard. I can’t tell you how many kids have told me today how great of a teacher he truly was.”
Bristow leaves behind his wife Ashley and two children.
Daughter Madison is a college student and his son Mason is a third grader at Jefferson ISD.
Ashley took to social media after his passing where she wrote, “God called home one of the most perfect people I’d ever met last night. It still doesn’t feel real. I’d give anything to make things different. Please pray for our children. No one should go through this and I hate that the world (and we) are deprived of this amazing man.”
While an obituary was not available as of press time, funeral services for Coach Robert Bristow are scheduled for Monday, March 1, 2021, at 10 a.m. at Mobberly Baptist Church in Longview.
A time of visitation will be held on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021 from 5-8 p.m. in the Cpt. Wm. Perry Chapel of Haggard Funeral Home in Jefferson.