Barry Del Buono, a longtime professor at San José City College whose life’s work bridged faith, public service, and education, died on December 26, 2025, in San Francisco, surrounded by family and loved ones. He was 74.
To generations of SJCC students, Barry was more than a sociology professor. He acted as a guide, a challenger, and a living example of what it meant to place justice, dignity, and service at the center of one’s life. Even in his final weeks, while hospitalized and undergoing cancer treatment, he continued grading finals and posting grades determined, as always, to put his students first.
Raised in a large Italian family in San Francisco, Barry dedicated his life to service from an early age. Ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1976 in the Diocese of San Jose, he later earned a master’s degree from San Jose State University and transitioned into social work, where he became one of the most influential nonprofit leaders in Silicon Valley.
In 1980, he co-founded Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen, beginning a decades-long partnership rooted in service and community building. He later led EHC LifeBuilders, helping transform Santa Clara County’s response to homelessness through expanded shelter, housing, and supportive services. For more than forty years, Barry was a tireless advocate for people experiencing homelessness, never hesitant to ask for resources, partnerships, or action when people’s lives were at stake.
After retiring from nonprofit leadership, it was his wife, Meile, a recently retired San José City College professor, who encouraged Barry to bring his experience into the classroom, seeing teaching as a natural extension of his lifelong devotion to justice. Taking her advice, he joined San José City College in Fall 2007, hired by former dean Dr. Pat Gerster, and taught his first course, Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration in U.S. History.
After two semesters, Barry transitioned fully into sociology, teaching Introduction to Sociology and Social Problems. He became the first sociology faculty member at SJCC to teach fully online, quickly mastering Canvas and helping colleagues across the College of Social Sciences develop their own online courses.
Barry’s pedagogy blended scholarship with lived experience or applied sociology. Before the pandemic, he regularly led students on field trips to homeless shelters, many of which he had helped create, encouraging them to study inequality not as an abstract concept, but as a call to action. Students volunteered, donated supplies, and saw firsthand how policy, power, and compassion intersect.
Within the college, Barry served on the Academic Senate, but his deepest institutional commitment was to justice and equity. He invested many years as a Faculty Association negotiator, later serving as chief negotiator. While undergoing cancer treatment, he missed only one negotiation meeting during the final bargaining sessions in December.
Colleagues remember Barry as a “born giver,” a man who led with conviction, humor, and moral clarity. Students remember a professor who believed in them sometimes before they believed in themselves and who urged them to become agents of change.
Barry is survived by his wife, Meile Del Buono, his partner in life and service; his children, Micah Del Buono (wife Cynthia), Ben Del Buono (wife Marissa), Don Ho (wife Ashley), Daniel Ho, and Catherine Ho; his grandchildren Noah, Victoria, Mateo, Owen, Kristina, Wilder, and Cassian; and his nieces and nephews Brittany Stone, Matthew Del Buono, and MaryAnne Del Buono. He was preceded in death by his parents, Robert and Rita Del Buono, and his sisters, Barbara Hales and Beverlie Terra.
Barry Del Buono worked until his final breath, not out of obligation, but out of love for his students, his colleagues, and his community. At San José City College, his legacy lives on through the students he challenged to see the world clearly and change it.
A memorial mass will be held on January 16 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Joseph’s Cathedral Basilica in downtown San Jose.
