2D.  Eugene Raymond Gilbert was born in Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, on Thursday, April 4, 1946. Rita Rose Robert was born in Central Falls, Rhode Island, U.S.A., on Thursday, June 22, 1944. They were married in Arlington, Virginia, on Saturday, August 6, 1966. She took the name Rita Rose Gilbert. He is the son of Truman Judson Gilbert and Dorothy Galbreath Gilbert. She is the daughter of Joseph Alfred and Rosa L. (Garand) Robert. They had three children:

Gene was born while the family lived at 2002 East Cork Street and lived there until October 16, 1963. He was always active in sports and played in Little League Baseball for several years with his brother, Harry. His father was also active and coached one of the teams. Gene held the family record for largest number of broken bones and other injuries, including osteomyelitis which developed after being hit in the arm with a baseball. It was a family joke that the hospital nurses knew Gene on sight. In 1963, he moved to Florida to live with his brother, Jud, and to attend high school.

Finding the schools behind those he had left in Michigan, he quit and joined the Army on December 16, 1963. He took basic training and advanced infantry at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. He was then accepted into the Honor Guard and sent to the 1^st Battalion, 3^rd Reinforced Infantry at Ft. Myer, Virginia. While undergoing the rigorous training for the drill team, it was discovered that he had a slight limp, the result of being spiked in the leg during a baseball game.

Gene then became a cook. After a year in the mess hall, he was assigned to cook for Lt. General Dick, and lived in his quarters. Gene met Rita during this time, on December 18, 1965, at a party. On April 20, 1966, he was riding his motorcycle when a car suddenly turned left in front of him from the oncoming traffic; he hit the car and went through the windshield into the front seat. As in several past injuries, he owed his life to modern medicine. He spent several months in the hospital in traction and did not have the steel pin removed from his leg for a year and a half. During this time, while still on convalescent leave, Gene and Rita were married. Like Jud, Gene had taken Catholic instruction and theirs was a Catholic marriage. Gene left the Army on November 20, 1967, and went to work as an engineering assistant for MelPar Inc. in Falls Church, Virginia.

In August, 1969, the family moved to Cooper, Michigan, just north of Kalamazoo. Gene first worked for the Allied Paper Company as a production scheduler. To advance in the company, he finished high school, but the mill was soon closed. He worked at odd jobs until he went to Virginia in May of 1972 to seek work as a carpenter. While at Ft. Myer, Gene and Rita had bought two lots in a development called Lake of the Woods in Virginia. He found work in this area as a carpenter for B and B Builders. Rita and the children stayed in Cooper and Gene lived in a tent. He was caught in a hurricane which destroyed his car and tent. He sought refuge in a model home with eight other men. He went to work for the developer of the home, American Timber, on July 4, 1972.

After buying a used car, Gene was able to return to Michigan to visit his family. On the return trip to Virginia, he had two flat tires near Ann Arbor, Michigan. Tired and frustrated, he returned to Cooper, gathered up Rita and the children, and drove to Ocean Pines, near Ocean City, Maryland. There they camped on a lot owned by his brother, Walt's, exwife, Sandra. After much looking, they bought a house in Selbyville, Delaware. Gene worked building houses in Ocean Pines and Ocean City. This was a time of high unemployment but he was able to acquire a contract to build an office for a USDA poultry inspector. Next he worked for H and H Poultry in building and equipment maintenance. He left this job in August, 1975, as a maintenance supervisor and returned to Michigan where he found work in building and equipment maintenance for the Charles River Breeding Laboratories in Portage.

Rita and the children joined him in Michigan in February, 1976. They bought a house in Portage within walking distance of his mother's apartment. On December 19, 1977, Gene was transferred to the company's headquarters in Wilmington, Massachusetts. They bought a house in Plaistow, New Hampshire, where they lived for the longest continuous period in their lives together. On November 9, 1981, Gene left Charles River and went to work for Kellogg American as a maintenance supervisor and facilities supervisor. Three years later, he changed to Photo Fabrication Technologies.

Gene continues to enjoy baseball, playing in the New England semi-pro league for the Haverhill AmVets as pitcher, first base, and third base. Gene and Rita enjoy the distinction of being the only family among his brothers and sister not to suffer a divorce.

• Personal interviews and knowledge