Amy Bourgault worked hard and played hard. That is how her husband, Tom, puts it. Simply and without hesitation. The way you describe someone whose life needs no embellishment.
She was a three-time Boston Marathon finisher who won numerous 5K and 10K road races across New Hampshire and volunteered for 16 years with the Concord Rock ’N Race. She was a devoted wife and a loving mother to their sons, Ben and Bobby. And she built a career that most people would have needed a college degree to achieve — though Amy understood that path firsthand. She attended the University of Rhode Island for two years before returning to Concord, and it was drive, not a diploma, that carried her to serve as chief of staff for two New Hampshire Senate presidents. She ran her own political consulting firm and served as executive director of the NH Community Colleges Foundation from 2006 to 2014, where she worked alongside the board of directors and college presidents to champion affordable, accessible higher education in the Granite State.
Amy was born and raised in Concord, where she later raised her own family — a life lived entirely in service to the state she loved. That devotion runs through everything she did, and it is the spirit this scholarship was created to honor and carry forward.
The Jenness Marden Scholarship takes its name from two of New Hampshire’s founding families, the Jenness and Marden families, who in the 1600s arrived at Sandy Beach, the settlement that would become Rye, New Hampshire. The name was chosen deliberately, as a reminder that New Hampshire was built by people who put down roots and gave everything to the place they called home. The donor, a close friend and former colleague of Amy’s who wishes to remain anonymous, hopes the students who receive this scholarship will feel that same pull — to grow up in this great state, to be shaped by it, and to give something back.
Amy passed away in March 2021 at the age of 55, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease — a battle she fought with remarkable courage and without complaint. Her spirit never faltered. Each morning she took her dog, Scout, out for a run or a walk. Each evening, she connected with her family around the dinner table, the place those who knew her would call her heaven.
When word reached Tom that a scholarship would be established in Amy’s name, he was invited to meet the donor in person. He describes the moment with the cautious, careful language of someone who doesn’t want to overstate what he felt.
“The scholarship is such a tribute to their relationship, their friendship,” said Tom. “You don’t want to use the word blown away by it, but it’s just a really great recognition of their friendship, and really what my wife brought to working at The Foundation.”
The Jenness Marden Scholarship provides need-based financial assistance to Granite State students who are veterans of the U.S. military or the children or grandchildren of veterans, helping them access the kind of education Amy spent years working to make possible. The military focus runs close to home. Amy lost her father when she was just six years old. He had served in the Navy, as had one of her brothers and Tom’s father.
Amy was a fierce believer in what the community college system could do for people who weren’t sure where they were headed but wanted to advance themselves. She believed it could open doors and create opportunities that change the direction of a life. The students who receive this scholarship could not find a better person to try to emulate.
After Amy passed, her oldest son Ben faced a choice as he was about to graduate high school. Going away to school didn’t feel right. So he enrolled at NHTI – Concord’s Community College, one of the colleges his mother had spent years championing.
“He works full time but is still taking classes in the business program at night,” said Tom. “Amy would have loved that.”
For more information about the Jenness Marden Scholarship or other scholarship opportunities visit GiveNHCC.org/scholarships.
