Obituary of Arthur George Gilbert

Arthur George Gilbert was born on September 7, 1929 in Santiago, Chile. It might seem like an odd location for a very British boy to start life, but even his mother Kathleen Keay was born in Valparaiso, Chile. Her family had emigrated from Scotland to Chile and her parents had married there. Herbert Gilbert (his father) arrived in Chile to work and met Kathleen. They were married in 1925. First was Mary and then Arthur. They moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina and his brother David was born. The Gilberts moved back to England in 1937 when David was barely a month old and lived in many locations, due to Herbert's work with the Civil Defense, during WWII.

Art said that he was always the new boy at school, since he went to a dozen or more over the years. He survived his schooling and went on to graduate with an Electrical Engineering Degree from Southall and Hatfield Technical Colleges. He said that while he was a young man, what he enjoyed most was learning how to fly a glider and soaring quietly through the sky. After working many years in Stevenage, he immigrated to Quebec, Canada in 1957. Since the Winters there are rather brutal, he moved to sunny California in 1960. At Statham Instruments in West Los Angeles he met his future wife, JoAnn Medved, who had just returned from a European driving tour with her two girlfriends, and was working in the printroom control. 

Art and JoAnn married in 1964 and settled first into an apartment and then a little house in Everglade, in West Los Angeles, where they welcomed Stacey into the family. Since the company moved up to Oxnard, they followed and built a house in Camarillo. After having a second daughter, Andrea, the whole family then moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico to help the company president start a new company there.

In 1974, they returned to Southern California, where the girls began their schooling and Art worked for Bentley Laboratories and JoAnn began a career with Home Interiors. He continued his enjoyment of Amateur Radio and photography, with his own darkroom. Changing to Endevco in San Juan Capistrano, he worked there for over a dozen years until retirement. He even returned for consultant work for another ten years, until his second retirement, when he was 72. Andrea joined him at Endevco working in Printroom Control for several summers, while she was in college.

The biggest event during this time was Stacey's wedding to Rick Feldes, an Aerospace Engineer. They lived in Costa Mesa, CA, when they presented Art with his first grandchild, Monica. A second granddaughter, Angela, arrived a few years later, and after moving to Mission Viejo,  Sonia, the third granddaughter was born. Art enjoyed his times with his grandchildren and watched them grow up into lovely ladies. 

After living on Whidbey Island in Washington for twenty years, he and his wife moved to Colorado to be closer to the family. They have lived here for five years now. Last year he celebrated with the family the marriages of his granddaughters, Angela to Andrew Costello and Monica to Noah Otto; as well as the celebrating the announcements of Baby Costello and Baby Otto on the way.

Just this past week on June 27th, JoAnn and Art celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary with all of their family around; daughter Stacey and her husband, Rick; daughter Andrea; granddaughter Monica and her husband, Noah; granddaughter Angela and her husband Andrew; and granddaughter Sonia with her boyfriend Corbin.  He enjoyed a last Guinness with everyone he loved near him and he passed away peacefully four days later. He will be missed by all for his love, kindness, and quirky sense of humour.