Steven Edwards Gilbert Obituary 2024 - Horan & McConaty Funeral Service and Cremation

Cover photo for Steven Edwards Gilbert's Obituary

1949 Steven Edwards Gilbert 2024

November 14, 1949 — April 28, 2024

Denver

Steve passed away on April 28th 2024 from complications due to Agent Orange exposure in Viet Nam. He was born on November 14, 1949, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Henry Wilbur Gilbert and Vivian Lee (Edwards) Gilbert. He spent his first five years in Newark, Ohio, and then the family relocated to Plainfield, New Jersey. He attended public schools in Plainfield and graduated from Plainfield High School in 1967.

Steve entered the United States Air Force in February 1968 and after six weeks of basic training at Lackland AFB, TX, was trained as an IBM Computer Repairman at Keesler AFB, MS. He then served at SAC Headquarters near Omaha, NE, until the summer of 1970, when he volunteered to serve in Viet Nam. After three months of training on IBM card processing machines in Arlington, VA, he was assigned to the 12th Combat Support Group at Phu Cat AB, Viet Nam in November 1970. He spent the next year traveling to military installations throughout Viet Nam, repairing IBM machines. He returned to the United States and was honorably discharged for the first time on November 30, 1971.

Steve returned to Plainfield to transition back into civilian life. His parents and brothers had left New Jersey for other parts of the country and Plainfield just didn’t feel like home anymore. In February 1973, he reenlisted in the Air Force and was assigned to the Northeast Regional Headquarters for NORAD at Hancock Field near Syracuse, New York. He enjoyed the opportunity to maintain a first generation (vacuum tubes) IBM computer for the Air Force. He was also able to earn an Associate of Applied Science degree in Business Administration from Maria Regina College as part of the first male class of the all-women’s Catholic college. After four years, he was honorably discharged for the second and final time on February 14, 1977.

Steve accepted a position as a Field Service Engineer for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in Syracuse and for the next seventeen years traveled Upstate New York, servicing a wide array of customers and the issues with their minicomputers. By 1994 the entire computer industry was going through a realignment. Steve took a severance package he was offered and decided to put the computer industry and Upstate New York in his rearview mirror and moved to the “Valley of the Sun.”

Steve spent four wonderful years in Tempe, AZ and then in 1999, moved to the Denver, CO, area and took a position at a financial services company. In 2005, he relocated to Alexandria, VA and became a researcher for a small company doing background investigations. He retired in 2016 and moved back to Colorado.

Steve was predeceased by his parents and his brothers, Dale Wesley Gilbert and Mark Douglas Gilbert. He is survived by his twin brother John Hopkinson Gilbert, a niece and many nephews.

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