Andrew “Andy” G. Gibson, age 91 of Hockessin DE, formerly of Dunwoody, GA, passed away peacefully on October 12, 2020.
Andrew was born in Avoca, PA to the late Andrew Dyer Gibson and Jessie (Johnstone). He graduated from Milford High School (Milford, CT) in 1947 and earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University in 1952.
He met his wife, Shirlie (Swanson) in high school and they married on September 11, 1951 on the CBS TV show “Bride and Groom”.
Andy’s 55 year career began with a summer job at Raybestos in Stratford, CT. In college he was an intern mixing metals in the hearth at Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem, PA. After graduating, he joined Union Carbide Co as a production engineer in WV. He added process and project engineering and then became a technical group leader. He was a key team member for development, scale-up and commercialization of the award winning Unipol® process for polyolefins used in over 60 manufacturing plants around the world, including Sweden, Australia and what is now the Czech Republic. He became VP of Polymer Technology at John Brown Engineers Ltd and then Director of Engineering at Olin Chemical. He spent 16 years as head of chemical engineering at Georgia Pacific working to improve plant process safety and productivity. After retiring from Georgia Pacific, he created Gibson Technologies.
Andy is a Fellow in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and was named Engineer of the Year for the Atlanta Chapter where he chaired the Government Interaction Committee for Atlanta. He was Engineer of the Year in Industry for the Georgia Society of Professional Engineers. He received a Clean Air Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and consulted with the U.S. Department of Energy. Lehigh University awarded him with the Rathbone Chemical Engineering Alumni Award.
Throughout his distinguished career, he was strong at technology fundamentals as well as developing people. He sponsored many co-op students and particularly enjoyed developing early career talent. He created a mentoring group through his church to help people looking for jobs. He also served on the President’s Council for SciTrek, the Science and Technology Museum of Atlanta.
Andy was a loving husband and father who enjoyed his work and also loved sailing. His sailing adventures began in high school as a Sea Scout and continued through many family vacations and weekends at a lake. He liked to paint, favoring charcoal sketches and watercolors and enjoyed music that included singing in choirs, barbershop quartets and playing the harmonica.
He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Shirlie, son Todd (Michele) of Chester, NJ, son Craig (Terry) of Tyler, TX, daughter Gayle (Denise) of Newark, DE and son Paul (Karen) of Palo Alto, CA; granddaughters Wendy (Mike) Byerly and Rayna, grandson Sam and stepgrandsons Ben (Hanisha) and Jeremy Kirk; greatgrandsons Cody and Lex Byerly and Dylan Kirk and many cousins in Scotland, South Africa, New Zealand and Canada.
In lieu of flowers, gifts in memory of Andrew G. Gibson ’52 may be made to Lehigh University (https://giving.lehigh.edu/) and designated to the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science for the department of chemical engineering. Or, you may send a check payable to Lehigh University and designated in the same manner to: Development Office, Gift Processing, 306 S. New Street, Suite 500, Bethlehem, PA 18015.
Andrew G. Gibson
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The celebration of life service and burial at Silverbook Cemetery will be private.
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