David Hugo Ibarra

1957 - 2022

News story
By Sylvan Lebrun
The Blade

David Hugo Ibarra, a beloved teacher and Washington Local Schools administrator who advocated tirelessly for Toledo's Latino community, died Monday in his Toledo home. He was 64.

The death was unexpected and the family awaits an autopsy report, said his son Nathan Ibarra.

After abandoning a law career in favor of his passion for education, Mr. Ibarra worked for Washington Local from 1996 to 2010, serving as assistant principal at Whitmer High School - his alma mater - and then as principal of Washington Junior High School.

His commitment to his students was an inspiration to his colleagues. Even after retirement, he continued teaching graduate and doctoral courses at Capella University and Tiffin University until his death.

"The thing that differentiated him ... was that he had such a passion for kids, and particularly underserved kids," said Casey Reason, a longtime friend and former Whitmer High principal. "When I was younger, I was so focused on my own ascent, and he was so great at reminding all of us why we were there. He allowed all of us to remember what was important."

Mr. Ibarra served on Toledo's Hispanic Affairs Commission for over a decade. After 2011, he was also chairman emeritus of the board of directors for Adelante, the local Latino resource center.

One of his proudest accomplishments, Mr. Reason said, was helping to create the Escuela SMART Academy, a bilingual charter school serving the Latino community, eventually procured by Toledo Public Schools. He served as vice president of the board from April 2014.

"He was very proud of his heritage, and he always preached that, taking care of your community in any way that you can," his son said.

Mr. Ibarra was born on July 16, 1957, in Houston to Hugo Armando Ibarra and Viola Leal. His father was a salesman and Navy veteran.

Soon after Mr. Ibarra's birth, his family moved to Toledo's Old West End, where he and three younger siblings spent their childhood.

When they first arrived, they were the only Hispanic family in the entire neighborhood. Despite this isolation, the family was tight-knit and "very involved in each other's lives," his son said.

While attending Whitmer High, Mr. Ibarra became a champion wrestler and, by his 1975 graduation, had secured a wrestling scholarship to Bowling Green State University.

Wrestling taught Mr. Ibarra the importance of self-reliance and strength, Nathan Ibarra said: "He used that for the rest of his life, to be able to be a grounding force and a pole that everyone could lean on."

The summer before his freshman year at BGSU, Mr. Ibarra worked at the Doehler-Jarvis steel plant on Detroit Avenue in North Toledo. He would later tell his children that this first job made him realize that he did not want a life of factory work, inspiring him to keep pursuing his dreams in higher education.

After graduating from BGSU, with a bachelor's degree in education, in 1979, Mr. Ibarra attended Ohio State University, where he received a master of arts in educational administration and supervision in 1983.

When he began his law degree at the University of Toledo, later that year, Mr. Ibarra also started working as a social studies teacher in Napoleon. He balanced night-school law classes and his full-time teaching job with taking care of his first son, Nicholas, born in 1984.

After graduating in 1987 and passing the bar in 1988, Mr. Ibarra began working for the law firm Gallon, Kalniz & Iorio. But, his heart lay elsewhere - he felt that his law career was not giving him enough of an opportunity to help others, his son said.

"I really like the law, and I've still maintained my law license," Mr. Ibarra said in a Blade interview in 2002. "But what I told my employer when I left, I didn't have the passion for it like I do education."

He did put his legal background to use at Whitmer High School, however. He offered legal advice to colleagues, and practiced on-and-off in retirement.

His return to education began in the Pike-Delta-York schools in Fulton County as a teacher and then a middle school principal, coaching wrestling on the side. In 1996, he applied to become assistant principal at his old high school, filling a vacancy left by Mr. Reason's promotion to principal.

With this, he began his 14-year career with Washington Local.

"He returned to his roots," said his son Jacob Ibarra. "He came back to where he grew up and he committed his time to his community, he gave back."

Jacob Ibarra called his father "a coach and a mentor" to every student he met. Mr. Ibarra never turned down a request to write a scholarship letter or a letter of recommendation.

"He was a relentless advocate for his community, and that would be the Latino community and, also, Washington Local," Mr. Reason said. "He had a great way of finding connections with people and getting really invested with what they wanted and what they needed."

In his free time, Mr. Ibarra loved to golf and work out, coaching his own sons in wrestling.

He could also often be found smoking cigars and enjoying a drink on the patio, usually while having long conversations with family and friends. Mr. Ibarra had a surreal ability to understand others and he "commanded attention" when he spoke, his son Nathan said.

Mr. Ibarra faced tragedy when his eldest son Nicholas died unexpectedly in March, 2009 at age 24. Nathan Ibarra said this experience made the Ibarras realize "how short life can be, and how the family needs to stay together."

"He always told me, he said, 'Love your job, but just remember that your job doesn't love you like your family does, so always love your family first,'" Mr. Reason said. "I never forgot that."

Just 24 hours before his own death, Mr. Ibarra texted Mr. Reason on Sunday morning and encouraged him to "generously share [his] time with [his] family on Father's Day."

He is survived by his wife, Debbie Ibarra, the former Debbie Leu, whom he had married Aug. 4, 2000; sons, Nathan and Jacob Ibarra; stepson, Michael Bushman; stepdaughter, Amber Cortez; brothers, Patrick and Mike Ibarra; sister, Linda Rogers; and six grandchildren.

Visitation will be Sunday from 3 to 8 p.m. at Newcomer Funeral Home's Northwest Chapel, where a funeral service will begin at 10:30 a.m. Monday.

The family suggests tributes to the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Toledo.