Gilbert Blemker Clippinger

1985

Born: October 3, 1887, in New Albany, Indiana
Died: December 3, 1929, in Indianapolis, Indiana

When Gilbert was a young boy, he was very enterprising and had many projects. He had a newspaper route and started writing for his school newspapers at an early age. His father was a Methodist minister. The family moved from New Albany, Indiana, to Vincennes, Indiana, where Gilbert attended school through his junior year in high school. They then moved to Indianapolis and he finished his high school career at Shortridge High School in that city. He was in the senior play, on the debate team, and was valedictorian of his class – the class of 1906.

He entered DePauw University in 1906. While at DePauw he worked his way through school by being manager of The DePauw Men’s Glee Club and by writing a column for the Indianapolis Star. He was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, a member of the debate team, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1910. While at DePauw, he and nine of his friends founded Sigma Delta Chi, a journalistic honorary fraternity.

In his class was Anna Ibach who was his sweetheart through college. They were married on October 9, 1910. They had two daughters, Mary Jane and Jo Anne, now Mary Jane Clippinger Jordan (Mrs. Irving C.) of Fallbrook, California, and Jo Anne Clippinger Sweet (Mrs. William W., Jr.) of Dallas, Texas.
Gilbert’s father graduated from DePauw University as did his brother, Henry Foster, and later his sister, Mary Eleanor (Mary Clippinger Scott (Mrs. Stanley L.)). His wife’s father and mother also graduated from DePauw as did her grandfather. Both daughters attended DePauw, one graduated there and the other graduated from UCLA.

He was a family man and enjoyed his family and friends. His closest friends were his high school and college classmates. He was an active member of the Meridian Street Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. His hobbies were sports related for he enjoyed golf, hunting, and fishing. Yearly, he went on fishing expeditions into Canada to fish for muskies. A local pleasure of his was frog gigging at the fish hatcheries in Martinsville, Indiana. An entirely different hobby was singing tenor in a barbershop quartet.

Upon graduating, he worked briefly for the Indianapolis Star and then went to work for the Fletcher Trust Co. in Indianapolis, now the Fletcher American Bank, where he became a vice president in charge of bond purchases. The bank sent him to Coral Gables, Florida, during the land boom of 1926 to buy and develop property. After returning to Indianapolis in 1928, he worked there for the bank until his death in 1929.