John & Frances Nitkey 60th wedding anniversary 2003

John was born in Wallace, Idaho and attended Harrison High School. John and Frances met at Gonzaga University where he received a business degree in 1943 and she took classes for her nursing degree from Sacred Heart Hospital in 1943. John worked as a clerk at the Ridpath Hotel while going to school.

John and Frances were married in 1943 before he went to Belgium as a quartermaster in the Army. Frances had a baby while he was in the military and she stayed with her mother in The Dalles, Oregon. The couple has six children: Dan, Joan, Susan, Frances, Kathleen and Larry; 22 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. One of their grandchildren, Shannon Griffin, graduated from Gonzaga in 2004 after earning a Nursing degree.

John is now a retired real estate developer and accountant. They started the scholarship in 2005. Awards are for accounting or nursing students who are Catholic and have financial need.