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Obituary: Charles Gilbert, a Pioneer in Special Education

Posted on: Friday, 17 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Maija-Liisa Young, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Mar. 17--Inspired by helping his Navy crew members read and write during World War II, Charles Gilbert went on to pioneer special education programs in the Sacramento City Unified School District. He was one of the first teachers in the district to work with physically and mentally disabled children and adults. Mr. Gilbert died Sunday from heart failure, his family said. He was 80. He was an affable man with a dry sense of humor who enjoyed fishing, said his friends and family. "He loved everybody, accepted everybody," said longtime friend Claude Rashid. "He was able to laugh when things got difficult to cut the tension. He was always joyful." A Grass Valley native, Charles Warren Gilbert was the youngest of four children born to Abraham and Barbara Gilbert. His father worked at the Empire Gold Mine. The family moved to Roseville when the mine closed during World War II.

Mr. Gilbert was drafted into the war while in high school. Abraham Gilbert accepted his son's diploma from Roseville High School in his son's absence.

Mr. Gilbert served as an electrician's mate first class aboard a Navy destroyer escort from 1944-46. He wrote letters and charted map courses for crew members, his family said. Once stateside, he attended San Francisco State University. He married Phyllis-Joy Ransfordin 1948 and had three children. Mr. Gilbert taught at California Middle School for a short while before teaching special education at Hiram Johnson High School from the 1950s to early 1960s. He also was track coach. "He was one of the best special ed teachers in the district" and found a way to teach every student, said Rashid, who also taught special education at Hiram Johnson. "He knew more about methods and techniques than anybody else." Mr. Gilbert took a break from teaching in the early 1960s to earn his master's degree in special education from San Francisco State University. Upon receiving his degree, he returned to the Sacramento City school district, serving as special education coordinator before becoming the first principal of McClaskey Adult Center in the mid-1970s. He retired from there in 1985. He started the school, which offers programs for adults with disabilities and seniors, from scratch, said his family. Mr. Gilbert supported different classroom methods teachers wanted to try, recalled Vito D'Albora, a graphic arts teacher at McClaskey.

His dedication to special education garnered him the administrator of the year award for 1981-82 from a Sacramento school administrators association.

Mr. Gilbert also worked with the state, accrediting hospitals and colleges for special education programs. In the 1960s and 1970s, he ran a summer camp for disabled children in La Honda and near Angels Camp. In his later years, Mr. Gilbert was a master of the toy claw machine at Denny's in Carmichael. When he pulled out toys, he would often give them to children watching him and sometimes take them home, said his son Nathan Gilbert. "Over the course of the year, his table would fill up with stuffed animals. He would bag them up and give them to charity." Mr. Gilbert is predeceased by his wife. ------------ Charles Gilbert Born: Aug. 20, 1925 Died: March 12, 2006 Remembered for: Being a pioneer in special education in Sacramento Survived by: Sons Colin Gilbert of Los Angeles and Nathan Gilbert of Folsom, daughter Charla Gilbert of Carmichael, sister Dorothy Clark of Grass Valley and two grandchildren Memorial services: 2 p.m. Saturday at Green Valley Mortuary, 610 Coloma St., Folsom Remembrances: Special Olympics, 1133 19th St. NW, Room 1200, Washington, D.C. 20005

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

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Source: The Sacramento Bee

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