Charles Frederick Gibbs ’39 died on January 25, 2004, in Cheshire, Connecticut.

Born on July 4, 1917, in Hopedale, MA, he prepared for college at Classical High School in Worcester, MA, and became a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity at Bowdoin. Following his graduation in 1939, he was a salesman with the Massachusetts Mutual Insurance Company for a year and then was a machine tool demonstrator with the Heald Machine Company in Ware, MA, for four years before serving in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946 during World War II, attaining the rank of lieutenant junior grade. From 1946 to 1956, he was a district sales manager with the New England High Carbon Wire & Steel Company in Millbury, MA, and in 1956 he founded Gibbs Wire & Steel Company in Southington, CT, which grew to have six locations in the United States, as well as a subsidiary in Canada. He remained active in the business for the rest of his life, as president, chairman, and chairman emeritus. He had served as president of the Waterbury (CT) Country Club and was a member of the Lobster Harbor Country Club in Osterville, MA, the Seaview Country Club in New Jersey, and the Naples Beach Club in Florida. A member of the First Congregational Church of Cheshire, he had served as a director of the Southington Bank & Trust Company. Surviving are his wife, Svea Holm Gibbs, whom he married in 1940; a son, C. Wayne Gibbs of Cheshire; two daughters, Sally Lane of Plymouth, MA, and Gerri Ferris of Kennebunkport; a brother, William Gibbs of Harwichport, MA; seven grandchildren; and two great- grandchildren.