Frank E. Gilkison

Frank E. Gilkison, 88

MUNCIE - Frank E. Gilkison, 88, a Muncie attorney who practiced more than half a century with a firm that today bears his name, passed away Friday morning, March 20, 2015 at his residence of complications following a stroke last fall.

Mr. Gilkison was an accomplished litigator who mixed preparation, professionalism, and tenacity inside the court room with congeniality and grace outside.

Frank was born October 19, 1926 in Washington, IN, the son of Francis Earl and Eva (Edwards) Gilkison. The senior Gilkison, also an attorney, had been an Indiana Supreme Court Justice from 1945 to 1955. He graduated from Washington High School in 1944 and was on the All-State Basketball Team. Frank attended Culver Military Academy Summer Black Horse Troop from 1942 to 1943, then served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and served as an Air Cadet in 1944-1945. He then enrolled at Indiana University, where he got his degree in political science in 1948, followed by a Doctor of Jurisprudence at I.U. Law School in 1950. At I.U. he belonged to Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and later the Delta Theta Phi legal fraternity.

In October of 1950, Mr. Gilkison came to Muncie to practice law with the Law Firm of White and Haymond, a predecessor firm to Beasley & Gilkison, Attorneys at Law, becoming a partner in 1955, where he remained a member until retirement in 2012. He tried cases in thirty-four Indiana counties, Federal Courts, the Indiana Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

In more than sixty years of law practice, he served as Muncie City Attorney from 1998 to 2011 and Circuit Court Probate Commissioner in 1953-1954. He was the charter organizing attorney for the Muncie Sanitary District and the initial attorney for the Muncie Police and Fire Merit Commissions. He was also the original attorney for the Delaware Community School District after he represented proponents in a seven-year lawsuit consolidating four townships into one district. From 1993 to 1999, he served as Republican member of the Delaware County Election board, the final four years as chair.

Mr. Gilkison served on the Indiana Supreme Court Commission on Character & Fitness for thirty-five years, and was CEO of Home Beverages, Inc., a small beverage distributor in Washington, for forty-five years.

Mr. Gilkison was former president of the Muncie Bar Association, and a member of the Indiana State and American Bar Associations, Indiana Trial and American Trial Lawyers Associations, a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, an invitation-only group of attorneys comprised of less than one percent of those practicing Law. He was also a Life Fellow of the Indiana Bar Foundation, which recognized him as its "Legendary Lawyer" for 2014, the only attorney in Delaware County ever to win the award.

Notable Cases were an $18 million recovery in a class action against the State of Indiana for 4,700 underpaid county welfare workers and the successful defense of a federal antitrust suit by thirty retail alcoholic beverage sellers against 152 Indiana beer wholesale companies. Charges were dismissed against all but nine defendants and a jury awarded no damages. The class action took eight years to litigate.

Community activities included president and fifty-year membership in the Muncie Exchange Club, president and fifty-three-year member of the Delaware Country Club, president of the Ball state Cardinal Varsity Club, and president of the Delaware County Tuberculosis Association.

He also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of First Presbyterian Church, a board member of the YMCA, Delaware Crippled Children Society, the Muncie Club, and the Junior Chamber of Commerce. He was a thirteen-year member of the Muncie Industrial Revolving Loan Fund Board. For fifty years, Mr. Gilkison belonged to the Muncie Masonic Lodge #433 and he was a 32nd degree Mason. He was a life member of the Junto Club of Muncie. He also attended Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Surviving are his wife, Donna Ruth Jones Gilkison; four daughters, Gwyneth Ann Cartwright (Dr. Andrew Levine), Houston, TX, M. Jane Cianco (Jack), Pilot Mountain, NC, Holly Susan Morey (James), Winnewood, PA, and Margaret Anne Leonard (Dr. Thomas), Pinehurst, NC; two stepsons, Phillip D. Coon (Tammie), Cary, NC and Scott A. Coon, Muncie; grandchildren, Daniel Cartwright, Jr., Malcolm Robertson, Marileigh Robertson, Karis Robertson, Samantha Robertson, Patrick Morey, Katherine Morey, Emma Leonard, Matthew Leonard, and Jacob Coon; and great-granddaughter, Alicia Robertson.

Two families from China, considered part of their own family by the Gilkison's, also survive. Both came to Ball State University for advanced degrees and the Gilkison's became their Fellowship Family: Jinbing Ma and Guihua and daughter Kathy, WI and Ming Zhang and Chunlian and daughter Lily, MO.

Frank was preceded in death by parents; his first wife, Barbara Ann Black Gilkison in 1990; a son, Frank Earl Gilkison II in 1966.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, March 24, 2015 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2801 W. Riverside Ave., Muncie, with Rev. Dr. Ronald Naylor and Rev. Kris Holroyd officiating. Burial will follow in Elm Ridge Cemetery.

Friends may call at The Meeks Mortuary and Crematory, Washington Street Chapel, from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. on Monday, March 23, 2015, or one hour prior to services on Tuesday at the church.

In lieu of flowers, friends are invited to contribute to either the Frank E. Gilkison Athletic Fund or the Donna Gilkison Music Education Scholarship Fund at Ball State University Foundation, 2800 W. Bethel Ave., Muncie, IN 47304 or online at cms.bsu.edu/giving/bsufoundation.

The family appreciates the outstanding support given by Morrison Woods Health Campus, Home Instead Senior Care, and IU Health Ball Memorial Hospice.

Online condolences may be directed to the family at www.meeksmortuary.com.