Charles ("Chuck") E. Gilbert, 96, Newtown Square, PA

Chuck Gilbert, 96, died before dawn on Monday, March 11, at White Horse Village in Newtown Square, PA, two months shy of his 97th birthday. He was a brilliant and good man, and although dementia had obscured his brilliance in recent years, it did not dim his goodness.

Charles Edward Gilbert was born in Albany, NY, to Edward and Genevieve (Hunt) Gilbert, on May 29, 1927. He attended a one-room schoolhouse in Feura Bush, NY, where his family had a small farm until the death of his father in 1937. His mother earned a degree in library science so that she could support Chuck and his two younger sisters. Chuck attended George School in Newton, PA, and then served in the Navy for 18 months at the end of World War 2. After graduating from Haverford College in 1950, he studied for a year at the London School of Economics and Political Science, before beginning graduate studies in political science at Northwestern University, where he met his wife, Annalee ("Lee") Schendorf, who was also a graduate student in the political science department. As a doctoral student, he worked as an assistant and speechwriter to Senator Hubert Humphrey. He and Lee were married on November 27, 1954, in Washington, D.C.

Chuck taught at Swarthmore College for a year in 1953-54, then for a year at Oberlin College while he completed his Ph.D with a dissertation, "Representation in Congress: A Case Study."   Chuck and Lee then moved to Swarthmore, where he returned to the College as an assistant professor. They had two children: Susan, born in 1955, and Jonathan, born in 1958. Chuck had a distinguished teaching career at Swarthmore, focusing on public policy.  From 1969-74, he served as the College's first provost, during a tumultuous period in which the presidency of the college changed several times. In a memorial posted by Swarthmore College, Chuck was described as a wise and humble source of leadership and stability during this period. He retired from Swarthmore in 1989, at which time friends, former students, and colleagues funded a lecture series, the Charles Gilbert Lecture in Political Science, which continues to this time, open to the public each year.

Beyond teaching, Chuck was active in the community. He served as an elder at Swarthmore Presbyterian Church for six years; he and Lee once co-taught confirmation class to junior high students; and he taught Bible classes several times, both at Swarthmore Presbyterian Church and later at White Horse Village, where he and Lee moved in 2006. Chuck and Lee both also volunteered at Chester Eastside, Inc. The community was also a focus of his professional study for a time—one of his books was Governing the Suburbs, published in 1967 about the Philadelphia suburbs, especially Delaware County.

In his personal and family life, Chuck was an avid fisherman, and especially enjoyed fly fishing in the streams of NE Pennsylvania, near the family cabin that he and Lee built in 1962. He enjoyed teaching his children, and later his grandchildren, to fish. He could fix anything, and did a lot of the work on the cabin himself, or with his son, Jon and Jon's good friend, Max Williams. He made several trips to Arizona to help Jon construct several buildings on Jon's ranch. Even when he was wheelchair-bound, he made minor repairs on his wheelchair rather than accepting a new one from hospice. He was a serious lover of classical music.  As a young man, he played the clarinet, but once he no longer had time to practice and play well, he set it aside. He valued excellence.

He had a fierce sense of integrity, and a deep commitment to consideration—he was keenly attentive to the people around him. That deep caring, along with his dry wit, made him a good and loyal friend to many. In his career, in his family, and his community, he was a consummate teacher, as faithful to the complexities of the subjects he studied as he was to the needs and the passions of his students.

Chuck was preceded in death by his father, Edward Gilbert (1937), his mother, Genevieve Hunt

Gilbert (1973), his wife Annalee (Lee) Schendorf Gilbert (2015), and a sister, Anne Strong Gilbert Curtin (2022). He is survived by daughter Susan Gilbert Zencka (Carl), son Jonathan Hunt Gilbert (Marywade); grandsons Jason Zencka (Florencia Lauría), Tyler Zencka (Ashley Jurinka), Corey Zencka (Caitilin McMillan); his great-grandsons: Tomás and Óscar Zencka-Lauría, Johann Jurinka Zencka, Clyde McMillan Zencka; his sister, Dorothy Gilbert; and three nephews: Steven Curtin (Christi), Charles G. Curtin, and Christopher Curtin.

A memorial service will be held at Swarthmore Presbyterian Church on Saturday, April 20, at 2 p.m., the Rev. Sarah Cooper Searight presiding. A reception will follow at the church. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to The Gilbert Lecture at Swarthmore College, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA 19081 or to Chester Eastside, Inc., P. O. Box 36, Chester, PA 19016.

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Arrangements provided by Rigby Harting & Hagan Funeral Home
Media, PA 19063
www.haganfuneralhome.com