Necrology of Toledo's Woodlawn Cemetery
John C. Gipe
Born in Indianapolis on May 12, 1881, John C. Gipe attended Indiana public schools and graduated from Indiana University. He found his first job with a Plate Glass firm in Alexandria, Indiana. In 1910, he left that company to take a superintendent position at Kitanning Plate Glass Company in Pennsylvania. For the next fourteen years, Gipe received steady promotions while working for the Standard Plate Glass Company in Butler, Pennsylvania, Valley Park, Montana, and Homestead, Pennsylvania. In Homestead he joined the U.S. Steel Company and finally the American Plate Glass Company in Kane, Pennsylvania.
In 1924, John Gipe left his position in Kane and went to Toledo as manager of the East Toledo plant of the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass Company. Within six years, Gipe advanced to managing the entire plate glass division of the company's several plants. This promotion came in conjunction with the company's consolidation with the Edward Ford Plate Glass Company in July of 1930. While in Toledo, Mr. Gipe was involved with the Toledo Club, Toledo Country Club, the Masonic Order and the Collingwood Presbyterian church.
John Gipe retired from Libbey-Owens-Ford in 1940 when he was stricken with a heart ailment. While visiting his daughter in Baltimore for Thanksgiving, Gipe suffered a heart attack. He and his wife, Mary, decided to remain in Baltimore for his recuperation. His condition improved steadily and he and Mary began to make plans to return to Toledo. Those plans were interrupted, however, when Gipe suffered a second, fatal heart attack. John Gipe died on February 9, 1941 and was returned to Toledo to be buried at Woodlawn Cemetery. [Toledo Biographical Sketchbooks (GERS-GODW) Local History Room, Toledo Lucas County Public Library]. (Toledo Blade, February 10, 1941), (Toledo Times February 10, 1941.)
