Faces in the Crowd: In Memory of Don Gilmore
The community of Marion has lost a number of good people in 2023, Don Gilmore being one of them.
Many locals remember Don from his time as Village President; others remember him as a big part of the Community of Christ Church. His life – and in particular his job as village president – was a balancing act: he didn’t want to make waves, but he also wasn’t going to be pushed around.
It’s a tough balancing act, but he did it well. He’ll be missed by many.
We spoke with him a little over 5 years ago and learned quite a bit about his story; a story that goes beyond politics, and beyond the church. Here’s Don’s story. May he rest in peace.
[Full article from the July 27th, 2018 edition of the Marion Press]
Around 1904, a local barber by the name of Benjamin “BJ” Gilmore was elected Marion Village Council President. Some fifty years later – in the 1950s – BJ’s grandson, Joseph Gilmore, served on the council. And finally, in 2008, BJ’s great-great-grandson Don was elected to serve the people of Marion.
So it’s fair to say the Gilmore family has some local, political, roots.
Don Gilmore, a 1959 Marion grad, has served on the Marion Village Council since 2008, while serving in his current role as Village President since 2012.
He’s seen the good and the bad side of politics; he’s witnessed the highs and lows of a local community and its people.
But Don Gilmore is much more than just some local politician. He’s also been a husband, a father and grandfather, a veteran, a conservationist, an avid outdoorsman and photographer, and a public servant.
As a seventh grader, Don met his late wife, Carol Hubbard. The two were childhood sweethearts and remained so until her passing in 2012. In the years between, Don and Carol took on the adventure of life, while raising their two children, Janet [Petty] and Joe [Gilmore].
The Gilmore family spent the early ‘60s in Washington DC while Don was stationed at the Pentagon with the Air Force. The couple moved back to Michigan from ’66 – ’76, where Don worked as a conservationist with the state. Eventually they made their way to Orlando, Florida from ’76 – 2001 when Don worked for General Electric. Finally, in 2001, Don and Carol retired and moved back to Marion to be with their families.
In our brief conversation, we spoke about family; about Carol and her sisters, and about his four grandkids and one great-grandchild. We spoke about faith, and its role in both of their lives. We spoke about politics and the upcoming election; about Marion and the issues that come with being village president. In our brief conversation, we discussed a lot, and we found out why Don Gilmore is more than just another face in the crowd.
Marion Press: Where were you born and raised?
Don: I was born in Flint; come to Marion when I was in the third grade. And of course, I have a long family history here – my father was born and raised here. Our family kind of went back and forth from the auto shops in Flint, to Marion and then back.
MP: What can you recall of moving to Marion as a third grader?
Don: Well, we already had the whole school up here [where the elementary is today], and at that time they did the classes with the advanced third graders with the non-advanced fourth graders. They did away with all that, and I’m glad they did, but that’s how it was. In the second grade I lived in Tuscola and so I spent one year in a one-room schoolhouse. That’s always an experience in and of itself.
MP: Did you have a big family growing up?
Don: There was three of us, my sister [Norma Pifer] was seven years older than me and my brother [Chuck Gilmore] – and we were two years apart. So we grew up here and my sister was almost out of school before my parents come back to Marion.
MP: What were things like growing up in the Gilmore household?
Don: There was just us – my parents both worked at the shop at the time, the Riverside [Factory].
MP: From what we’ve heard, Riverside used to be huge.
Don: Well, for that time it sure was. It was bigger than Evart Products, but they went out, and of course [Evart Products] kept growing.
MP: What were you some of the things that you liked to do as a kid?
Don: When we were kids, of course at that time we’d run the town – not [literally] run the town, but run through the town. So, we did a lot of fishing and playing around.
MP: And the Lake Marion project is one of your current [village council] projects – did you fish in the Mill Pond as a kid?
Don: Oh yes. Fished in there and we’d swim out and get the lures off the stumps out there. We’d pick them off and we’d have plenty of fishing lures. I was in the junior high school when they changed [the portion] below the dam to the swimming pool and poured those abutments – my dad [Joseph Gilmore] was on the council at that time and took charge of that project. So we had a nice swimming pool at that time below the dam there.
MP: So the Gilmore family has long roots here in Marion?
Don: Yeah, there’s seven generations of us at the cemetery. We’ve never been a big family as far as numbers, but there’s always been a couple of families that were here. My great-great-grandfather [Benjamin Gilmore] was the village president in 1904, ’05, ’06 and then my dad was a trustee on the council during his time.
MP: What about Marion High School? What were things like in the ‘50s?
Don: Graduated in ’59. There were 51 [graduates] in our class, and we were the first class in quite some time to have 50. At that time, they made the first addition on the school up there – during our junior and senior years – before that we were all in the old school with the two stories and the basement, in the main square part of the old school.
MP: And at some point, you met Carol [Hubbard].
Don: Oh yeah. We started going together in seventh grade, so we went together right through.
MP: So you were high school sweethearts! After high school, where did some of your adventures take you?
Don: I went to college for a couple years, then I joined the Air Force. I was stationed in D.C. I joined the Air Force before the Vietnam War was gettin’ goin’, and I was stationed at the Pentagon.
After that, we come home and I was a conservation officer for ten years – from ’66 to ’76. I was stationed in the U.P. for five years, and I was stationed in Pinconning for five years. And after I worked for the state as a conservation officer, I went to Florida for 25 years and worked for General Electric. I run the warehousing in Orlando to supply Disney – that was a busy, busy, time. I retired in ’01.
MP: Okay, so that’s when you came back home?
Don: Yeah, people kid us for going backwards! But our families were here; my family was here, Carol’s family was here. We never doubted we were gonna come back. [When living in Florida] we’d come back so often, up and down I-75. We’d come back here to hunt, and to see our families.
MP: When did you start taking an interest in politics?
Don: Oh, in high school! Maurice Allen was the principal when I was in high school, and I’ve been a conservative from the time I left his government class until today. Goldwater, Reagan, all the way through the conservative movement. I never understood how we could plan on spending a trillion and a quarter and taking in [only] a trillion in taxes. Year after year, and we’ve been doing it ever since that time, in 1960! It still works, but fortunately in the villages, we’re not allowed to do that; only the federal government can do that.
But I worked on political campaigns in Florida; congressional campaigns. I never ran for office, but I worked on the campaigns. And I’ve always been a [politics] junkie.
MP: So Maurice Allen was kind of big into politics too?
Don: He was the principal at the time, and as a matter of fact, he actually laid out that social security really wasn’t a good idea. And I’ve got to say that he was wrong because it’s lasted this long, but in the future, it looks bleak. But it’s always looked beak in the future! Even since the start, and at that time he said it looked bleak in the future. But it’s survived.
MP: When did you start getting involved here locally?
Don: At first, I was in some of the clubs: the historical society, the chamber [of commerce]. And then I got on the council as a trustee – I was a trustee for four or five years – and I’ve been president now for six years.
MP: As Village President, what have been some of the biggest challenges so far?
Don: The biggest challenge is with our mandates that don’t come from the legislature. The legislature, if they pass a law and it costs us money, they’re supposed to help. But that doesn’t go for the departments, like MDOT, or the DEQ. Those departments can come down here and say, ‘You’ve got to do this.’ And we’ve got to do it – it’s a regulation. So, then you’ve got to spend that money, and sometimes that can be considerable. Our bridge is under yearly inspections, our dam is under yearly inspections, and you just hope nothing goes bad there.
MP: The village president, more or less, is the most important job in Marion. What is your favorite part – and least favorite part – of the job?
Don: My favorite part is just being on decisions. I like to be there when decisions are made. My least favorite part is that I get involved in neighbor squabbles. You’ll have two people come in and want something completely different, and both are honest. Everybody has their own priorities – I might prioritize green lawns, and I might prioritize the freedom to do something with my car on my yard. That’s the hard part.
And I’m not the most important person – the most important people are the employees who actually do the work. They’re permanent and I’m transient – every two years! But I do like being involved with decisions when they’re being made – that’s what I like about government.
MP: Outside of the council, what else keeps you busy?
Don: My main hobby now is photography. I’ve always done it, through different times in my life, and when I come back to Michigan I got my first digital camera. Of course, [digital cameras] have changed photography.
MP: What kind of photos do you like to take?
Don: I kind of specialize in animal portraits; I like landscapes. That’s what I like to do best. Most photographers don’t make their livings with portraits anymore; they make their livings by teaching other photographers. It’s such an expanding hobby. I take photos just for fun – I’m with a camera club, and I’ll enter contests. It takes up just about most of my time that I’ve got extra.
I still go hunting; my son and grandson come for deer season. We have a farm out here and belong to a gun club south of Marion. We used to hunt a lot of waterfowl, but not so much anymore. It’s too hard of work for my age – you’ve gotta drag those decoys over those muddy fields. That’s been my joy throughout life, but taking pictures of them now are the same – and I can just do it from a ditch in the road!
MP: What is it about this area that’s kept you here?
Don: I don’t know. I go back to when I was a kind, and Main Street looks the same, roughly. I can go hunting on the same piece of ground that I did as a kid. I just like that. Some place where I’m known, and where I know people.
MP: Who has been your role model? – Anyone who has kind of showed you the way?
Don: Well, I go back to Mr. Allen in my government class. It’s really been a passion forever, politics. And there’ve been a lot of other really good people. Faith has always been a big part, and especially with Carol it’s been a center part.
MP: If someone was to ask, ‘Who is Don Gilmore?’ How would you reply?
Don: Well, I like to move through life without causing anyone else pain or discomfort. In other words, if someone’s following me too closely [on the road] I’ll drive a little faster just to make them happy – things like that. But I don’t shy of conflict; I’m willing to argue something out with somebody. It’s necessary, doing this [job]. Those two things: Trying to move through life without causing waves, but being ready to stand my ground. The minutemen are my heroes – because they stood their ground. And we have to sometimes, knowing there’s a cost. And I’ve paid the price a few times for standing my ground for a group – but that’s just what you do.