William E. Gilbert ’50

Bill died Oct. 26, 2021, in Hilton Head Island, S.C., where he moved in 2007 from his longtime home on Gibson Island in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay. 

At Princeton he graduated with honors in basic engineering and belonged to Key and Seal. He earned an MBA at Penn’s Wharton School and then served three years in the Navy, mostly as an engineering officer on the destroyer USS Hazelwood.

After a year with DuPont, he joined his father’s Brass & Copper Supply Co. in Baltimore. With the company’s sale in the late 1960s and concern over his son John’s health, he moved his family to St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, where he lived for three years, and part time from 1995 to 2014.

In 1973 he joined Marriott Hotels, where he oversaw hotel and resort development. In 1984 he started Great Inns of America, a company that managed and developed historic inns. In retirement he volunteered with the International Executive Service Corps as an adviser on hotel management in Eastern Europe.

An adventurous spirit marked Bill’s life. While in St. Croix he explored every Caribbean airstrip and flew his Grumman Widgeon up the Amazon. After “final” retirement, he and his wife traveled extensively in Europe, Africa, and the South Pacific. 

Bill is survived by his wife of 65 years, Helen; children John, Katie, and Janet Lee; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.