David H. Gilbert, 96, died on October 18 at the Broadmead Retirement Community in Cockeysville, Maryland. He had lived there for the final 12 years of his vibrant life, five of those with his beloved wife of 67 years, Doris (Dot) Fiedler Gilbert.

Dave to some, Gil to others, David was born in Boston. He and his mother moved to Winthrop, across Boston harbor, soon thereafter.  Beginning at age 6, delivering the Boston Globe by bicycle became a daily early morning commitment that provided spending money to go to Red Sox games with his friends who played sandlot ball with him. Living on the shore of Massachusetts Bay, he also had opportunities to learn to sail. At age 13, in the middle of his 9th grade year, he moved to Huntington Ave in downtown Boston to live with his mother near where she worked at a hotel and restaurant.

As the new semester began, David took his transcript from Winthrop High and started searching for a school which ultimately took him to the office at Boston Latin School. Although the secretary told him there were no openings for students without entrance exams, a senior member of the faculty happened by and agreed to interview the insistent young man. He was a French teacher, and noting that David had taken French at Winthrop, he asked David some questions in French and was impressed with his responses. After some further conversation with the unconventional applicant, he told the secretary, "Let's make room for this young man. Put him in my homeroom." Throughout his life David would credit that one chance encounter with having been a truly pivotal point in his life and would tell the story with great respect and gratitude for M. Levine. David flourished as a student and athlete (football, track and field, and baseball) at Boston Latin and graduated as the scholar-athlete of the class of 1946. That was his ticket to Harvard from which he graduated in 1950 with a degree in economics and awards in baseball and track.

Throughout his high school and college years, David's mother worked as a manager at various hotels and restaurants. When she was short of staff, she would regularly call on him to fill in.  He became quite adept at everything from shoveling parking lots to busing tables and washing pots and pans, short-order cooking, making banana splits, and even working at the reception desk, somehow managing to juggle school, sports and work. The upside to this extensive work obligation was that he had no trouble finding summer work, most years on Cape Cod. In the summer of his sophomore year, he took a job as salad bar manager at an Inn on Nantucket. It was there that he met his future bride, a vivacious coed working as a waitress who was from Dobbs Ferry, NY, and a rising senior at Boston University. They would marry three years later.

After graduating from Harvard, David enlisted in the army and, after basic training, was assigned to Officer Candidate School at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) in Harford County, Maryland. David and Dot were married in August 1951, and the young couple moved to nearby Bel Air in the spring of 1952 with their first child, David A, on the way. They would end up making Bel Air the home for their family for the next 61 years.

Although he never returned to live in New England, David maintained a life-long pride in his Boston roots and always relished taking his family for vacations to the Cape, where his mother had settled after remarrying. In the summer of 2022, he organized a very special reunion tour to share his Boston roots with his five children. The three memorable days were filled with detailed stories of his youth as they traveled from Winthrop into Boston, concluding with a guided visit to Boston Latin School where they found his name on the Varsity Hall of Fame plaque. They also visited his mother's McLane family home in Allston and enjoyed a reunion dinner with some McLane family relatives. The only thing missing from the visit: the Red Sox were not in town!

David worked at APG in materiel and logistics management for his entire career, first as an Army officer and then. after retiring at the rank of major, as a civilian. As he moved up through the Civil Service levels, his job would increasingly take him to the Pentagon and to military bases and weapons manufacturing sites around the U.S. and Western Europe. Over the course of his distinguished career, he earned many awards of excellence and distinction including a year-long sabbatical to study at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at Fort McNair in DC during which he added an MSBA to his set of degrees while also helping ICAF beat the Navy War College in softball and tennis!

David and Dot added a second child, Deborah, to their family in 1954, and David decided to enroll in law school via the evening program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. He received his LLB in 1958 and was president of his class. While he never practiced full time, he maintained his bar membership for many years while doing pro bono work, and he made regular use of his legal training in his career and volunteer positions throughout his life.

As their third child, Amy, was born, David and Dot began the serious expansion of their small ranch house, additions that David designed and in part constructed. They became increasingly involved with the Bel Air community. At the center was the faith community they found at the First Presbyterian Church of Bel Air where David taught Sunday School and served as an elected elder on the Session and numerous committees over the course of 60 years. David's energy, creative insights and leadership skills often led him to positions of leadership in organizations and activities including Rotary (president), AFS International Student Exchange (regional representative), PTA (president), Harford Community College (board member), and Harvard Admissions Interviewer. He was perhaps most proud of his service to the APG Federal Credit Union in its founding at APG and its expansion throughout Harford County and beyond for nearly 50 years. He served as board president for many years and later was elected to the board of the Maryland Association of Federal Credit Unions and then to the National Association where he was the first volunteer member of a local credit union to be elected to the national board. In retirement he had numerous opportunities to make presentations at local, regional and national conferences as a keynote speaker.

Although work and volunteer commitments at times weighed heavily on him, David always valued family time and brought fresh energy to it. He was committed to bringing a rich family life to his children – something that was not part of his childhood but that he found in Dot and her parents and brother who welcomed him with love into the Fiedler family. Every Sunday morning David prepared his special poached egg breakfast for his family. A perfectly prepared banana split would celebrate a special occasion. The annual summer trip to the small farming village of Andes, NY, in the Catskills, where Dot's parents lived in retirement, provided a relaxing respite for him with the family. They savored farm-fresh food from Dot's parents' garden and cousin's farm, swam and fished in a brisk mountain lake and, always the highlight for the kids, spent a night or two at the small cabin on the lake.

With the birth of twins Mark and Lyn as son David was in his senior year of high school, David and Dot effectively entered a second generation of parenting. It was an opportunity to add some new experiences and activities to their family. With the addition of a camper van and later a pop-up camper trailer, family camping trips became an annual event. Destinations included Assateague Island, the Florida Guif Coast, Myrtle Beach, and two cross-country trips. They also purchased a small cabin on the Susquehanna River with a motor boat for water skiing and a small sailboat so David could share with the family his love of sailing from growing up in Winthrop.

David had a life-long love of sports, both as a loyal fan (especially for the Red Sox and Orioles) and a competitive participant (baseball, track, skiing, tennis). He played tennis weekly into his mid-80's and then learned about pickleball and spearheaded the creation of the pickleball court at Broadmead. He was an avid skier and enjoyed ski trips with the family as well as many domestic and international trips with the Baltimore Ski Club. In his 70's and early 80's he competed in the Maryland Senior Olympics and was three times a national Senior Olympian representing Maryland in track and field events.

David always said that he owed more than he would ever be able to repay to his beloved wife. In retirement, they took several special group excursions that she loved including to the Caribbean, the Galapagos Islands and Alaska. She also really enjoyed accompanying him to the annual National Credit Union conventions where there were always special programs and excursions for spouses. When Alzheimer's began to overtake her, David committed himself to trying to preserve as much quality of life for her as possible. He took her almost daily on rides through the countryside where they would stop on the side of the road for her to enjoy the natural beauty or the cows or goats in a roadside field. He made sure she could return to their home in the J3 apartment rather than remain in the memory-care unit for her final days, with her bed arranged for a view looking out from the sunroom and with her cat Pepper curled up at her feet. It was an abundant display of loving devotion, and if not a full repayment, it was certainly everything she needed in those final years.

Those who knew David/Dave/Gil/Dad/Grandpa would quickly identify his warm, welcoming smile, the sparkle in his eyes when recounting a story, his always ready sense of humor, tireless energy to tackle a project and to fix just about anything around the house, his insatiable curiosity about people and places, and the generous, caring spirit that undergirded his character. When asked how he would like to be remembered, David responded simply, "that I had a wonderful life, a magnificent wife, a loving extended family, and that I in some way helped to make the world a better place." And so he did!

David leaves behind his 5 children: David A Gilbert (Margaret Rowlett), Deborah Shenton (Bill), Amy Kern (Greg), Mark Gilbert (Savita), and Lyn Halvonik; 10 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren, and stepsister Penny Hilliard.

A Memorial Service will be held at the Broadmead Retirement Community, 13801 York Road, Cockeysville, Maryland 21030 on Saturday, November 8, beginning at 12:30 p.m. Friends are invited to join the family as we honor David. At David's request, his ashes will be buried beside his wife and her parents, Arthur and Nina Fiedler, in the cemetery of the small Catskills town of Andes, New York.  In lieu of flowers, contributions in memory of David can be made to Boston Latin School (78 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, MA 02115) or First Presbyterian Church of Bel Air (224 N. Main St, Bel Air, MD 21014).

Please remember David by signing his guestbook. Online condolences may be sent to the family through www.peacefulalternatives.com.