Claire K. Gilbert

CLAIRE K. GILBERT
ITHACA - Claire K. Gilbert, the wife of Dr. Perry W. Gilbert, former professor of Zoology at Cornell University, died of a stroke at age 92 in Ithaca, New York, on January 1, 2008. The daughter of John F. and Anna Lynch Kelly, and the youngest of nine children, Claire was born in the upstairs bedroom of the Kelly farmhouse in Whitesboro, New York. When she was five years old, her family moved to Utica where Claire attended the St. Francis de Sales Academy, a girls' high school. "I always felt pushed to the limits of my abilities and beyond," she said. She moved to Ithaca, New York in 1933 to attend the College of Algriculture at Cornell University. She graduated from Cornell in 1937. "Those years at Cornell were the happiest years of my life!" she exclaimed.
On September 3, 1937, Claire married Perry W. Gilbert who later became a professor of Zoology at Cornell. He taught Comparative Anatomy to pre-med students who marveled at his skill as a teacher. Perry wrote over 150 articles and edited two books on sharks, ably assisted by Claire. She not only edited his work, but was often his co-author. She learned Russian and Italian so that she could translate scientific treatises on sharks.
Claire and Perry had eight children, Ann, David, Stephen, John, Mary, Lois, Christopher, and Phillip. In 1968, the Gilberts moved from Ithaca to Sarasota, Florida when Perry became the Director of the Mote Marine Laboratory. In Sarasota, Claire volunteered at the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Shop and sang alto in the choir at the Incarnation Church. She entertained Cornell presidents, professors, and alumni, as well as members of the Mote Marine Laboratory. She was a fine cook and expert hostess, noted for her puff pastries filled with crabmeat, her English Toffee, and Swedish Tea Ring. Claire could slip cover a sofa, braid a rug, sew a dress, a snowsuit, or a ballet costume, knit sweater sets, raise and milk a goat, identify flowers, trees, birds, bugs, and reptiles. She could write articles and short stories, quote poetry, spell and define complex words, beat anyone at Bridge or Scrabble, and make it all look easy! She loved to sing and play the piano, to garden, and to read.
After her husband Perry died, Claire sold her home in Sarasota in April 2002 and moved to the Longview Retirement Home in Ithaca, New York where she resided until 2007. Claire is survived by her daughters, Ann Gilbert McDonald, Mary and Lois Gilbert; and her sons, John, Christopher, and Phillip Gilbert; eight grandchildren, Matthew and Shana Seyfried, Perry Gilbert McDonald, Celeste, Charlie, Nick, Scott, and Dan Gilbert; and seven great-grandchildren.
Contributions in the name of Claire K. Gilbert to the St. Vincent de Paul Society and to the Salvation Army would be welcome.