Obituary of James W. Gibson

Gibson, James W. Irondequoit: Died peacefully at home on December 21, 2014, age 79. Jim was born in Portland, ME, and is a Kodak retiree. Survived by his wife of 53 years, Barbara Brunner Gibson, sons Robert M. and Andrew J. (Samantha Gruber) Gibson, grandchildren Valkyrie and Ian Gibson. Services will be held privately. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to a charity of your choice. Jim was born on May 15, 1935, so he had many lasting boyhood memories of World War II. His home faced the ocean, Casco Bay, where the US Atlantic fleet was based. Nightly blackouts were strictly kept since his home was on the coast. There were reports of enemy subs at the submarine nets across the entrance to the harbor. His father was superintendent of maintenance at Portland Coach Company, the city bus service. His critical job was to keep the buses running smoothly to bring workers to the shipyards where Liberty Ships were produced. Even as a boy, Jim liked trains. His grandfather had emigrated from Scotland to work on the Grand Trunk Railroad. Jim remembered walking to grammar school, crossing a bridge over a rail line. Jim liked to stand in the smoke when a train passed under the bridge. He had O gauge Lionel trains as a boy. His parents let him nail the tracks to the floor! He had extensive HO model train layouts in his home on Electric Avenue in the tenth ward and later in the basement of his home in Irondequoit. For his train layout, he enjoyed building scale models of actual buildings such as the different houses he had lived in, his camp in Maine, his son Andrew’s home, the railroad station in Yarmouth, ME. He painted and decaled historically accurate HO models of actual locomotives and freight cars. He preferred diesel locomotives. Jim also collected date nails. He took sons Robert and Andrew on long hikes along abandoned railroad tracks looking for nails that showed the date that the railroad tie was laid and the type of wood. Starting in the third grade, Jim enjoyed playing the French horn. The most important experience in his high school life was playing in the championship Deering High School band. They played difficult music, marched in exact formation, and competed throughout the state of Maine. Jim also played French horn in the school’s orchestra. Even after he went to college and stopped playing the horn, Jim loved classical music. He really liked percussion. Jim’s other passion was photography. In high school, he took photography as one of his science courses and was photographer for the year book. He had his own dark room at home, to process, enlarge and print his photographs. After graduation in 1953, he came to Rochester Institute of Technology, the only college that offered a photography major at that time. He was awarded his BS in 1958 with a concentration in photographic chemistry. While at RIT, Jim worked part time for Flower City Oil Company. Because of his experience driving buses and trucks at his summer job at Portland Coach Company, he not only delivered fuel oil, but also drove the company’s large tractor trailer truck. He was a really good driver. At Flower City Oil, Jim met his future wife, Barbara Brunner, who worked part time in the company’s office while in high school. They were married October 7, 1961. Soon after graduating from RIT, Jim started his long career at Eastman Kodak, retiring in 1991. He began as a photo chemist in the research labs, as part of the Military Photography division. Later, he transferred to the Hawkeye plant, part of the government contract division, where he developed chemical solutions for processing sensitive films used in US spy satellites. It was secret work requiring government clearance; the project was made public a few years ago. In 1977, Jim transferred to the Photochemicals Division at Kodak Park. He was a product specialist, dealing with both color and black and white film processing products. In retirement, Jim continued taking pictures and loved digital photography. He could then work with photographs, using the computer to accomplish what he used to do with film. Jim was a lighthouse enthusiast. He photographed lighthouses wherever he traveled, along the Atlantic coast, the Great Lakes, and in Europe. He was a former tower docent at the Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse. Jim was interested in United States history and was a member of the Irondequoit Historical Society. As a former boy scout, Jim enjoyed camping with the family in state and national parks. For many years, he owned 50 acres of wooded property in Allegany County near Centerville, NY, where the family camped in a pop-up trailer almost every weekend. In later years he owned a 28-foot class- A RV. This was followed by two RoadTrek camping vans in which he enjoyed travel to hot air balloon festivals and scenic parks. He made two trips to the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Fiesta and camped in Yellowstone and other western national parks. His favorite trip was riding the scenic, historic Durango & Silverton Railroad in Colorado. Jim always loved Maine and returned every summer to the camp on Little Sebago Lake, Maine, that was owned by his parents since before he was born. The only summer of his life that Jim did not go to camp was when he had heart surgery in 2000. He enjoyed kayaking and observing the loons and eagles on the lake. He built three kayaks, and later owned a pontoon boat. Jim suffered from back pain. As a boy, he had fallen down the steep stairs at home and injured his back. He had successful back surgery in 2004. But in his last years, pain returned. He suffered increasingly and found no relief. His family now feels joy that he has found his rest.