Arlan Gilbert, who retired from teaching at Hillsdale College in 1998, died on Feb. 22 at Drews Country Living in Hillsdale. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on March 2 at Hillsdale First Presbyterian Church.
He was a professor of history at Hillsdale for 38 years, beginning in 1960. He served as chairman of the history department from 1963 to 1970 and was the first Grewcock Chair in American History from 1995 to 1998.
“For all his excellence, he was one of the most humble and kind people I have known. He was unfailingly pleased to be in the company of students, friends, and colleagues,” Dean of Faculty and Professor of History Mark Kalthoff said. “He will be missed dearly.”
Gilbert wrote a two-volume history of Hillsdale College, “Historic Hillsdale College: Pioneer in Higher Education, 1844-1900” and “The Permanent Things: Hillsdale College, 1900-1994.” Other books included a biography of college founder Ransom Dunn and an account of the college’s role in the Civil War.
“His two-volume history of the college is indispensable,” Professor of History Bradley Birzer said.
Kalthoff remembers Gilbert working “diligently” on the books.
“Every afternoon during those years he predictably walked from his office to the old snack bar to get a large soda to sustain him in reaching his daily word-count quota,” he said.
Gilbert’s interest in the Civil War extended to family vacations.
“Every summer we would travel all over the United States and see all the battlefields,” Gilbert’s daughter Angie Berry told the Collegian in 2019. “He was very passionate. We even had a dog named Gun Powder.”
Kalthoff first met Gilbert as a student and later worked alongside him in the history department.
“My senior year as a student, I campaigned with my fellow classmates to secure his winning Professor of the Year for 1984,” Kalthoff said. “I actually didn’t have to work very hard. Everyone liked him, a lot. He won easily.”
Deanna Ducher, who teaches American history and civics at the Hillsdale Academy, remembers her first college class with Gilbert.
“When I came to Hillsdale as a freshman, Dr. Gilbert was my first class on my second day of school,” she said. “His love of American history was evident in every lecture.”
Ducher said he always ended his classes with the same closing words.
“I’ll never forget that he ended every, every single lecture by addressing the class with, ‘Thank you for your attention,’” she said. “Which epitomized what a perfect gentleman he was.”
Gilbert’s family asks that memorial contributions be made to the Ransom Dunn Endowed Scholarship at Hillsdale College “to further the education of the students he loved so dearly.”
