Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Gibson, Bob
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Canadian war veteran, artist, avid reader and book collector, William Robert (Bob) Gibson was born into a farming family in Springbank, Alberta, in 1908. Books and reading seized his imagination from early childhood; Jules Verne was an early favourite. Reading became even more important during a year-long period when scarlet fever kept him largely confined to his bed. Later, as a teenager, Bob would walk from Springbank into Calgary in order to borrow books from the downtown library.
Bob served with an artillery unit in the Second World War from 1939-45, in England, Sicily and Italy. On his return to Calgary he found an outlet for his artistic talents through drawing and ceramics. In addition to work as a part-time commissionaire, he taught ceramics classes through the Allied Arts Council and set up an artistic ceramics business in his garage, complete with two electric kilns. A few decades later a bicycle accident forced him to break a contract to deliver ceramic figurines and he never returned to it. Instead, he dedicated his weekdays to reading and collecting books and stayed on as a weekend commissionaire, an occupation that allowed him even more time to indulge his interests.
Bob died on January 8, 2001 at the age of 92.