Kent Gibbs (Missoula ’65)
Posted: June 15, 2025
Kent was born in Arab, AL, January 27, 1943, to educator parents. The youngest of three boys, he graduated from Arab HS in 1963.
After graduation, he and a friend left Arab with very few dollars and a 1952 Chevy to get a job with the USFS in Montana. That they succeeded was likely due to the fact that Kent’s brothers had worked for the USFS and were much respected.
Summer ended. Both young men returned home and started college. But Kent was hooked on the USFS and went back out West the next summer. Somewhere along the way, he became interested in the smokejumpers and applied—and was accepted. His time with the smokejumpers was one of the highlights of his life. In later years, he’d take his family to Montana and Idaho, where he delighted in showing them the loft in Missoula and revisiting his time there.
One summer, he was sent to Alaska around the Athabaskan reservation. The chief’s wife “chewed” a pair of leather moccasins for him, trimmed in rabbit fur (they smelled like smoke many years later). The time spent above the Artic Circle was a special memory for Kent.
In 1967, after three summers of smokejumper service, he graduated from Jacksonville State University in Alabama.
He then began a civil service career with the United States Army Audit Agency.
He married Judy in January of 1968 and was soon given the opportunity to transfer to the agency’s European District. The couple spent three years in Germany and Central Europe. Kent later had the opportunity to travel to most of the Southern District, as well as to Panama and Kwajalein in the Central Pacific. Now with two young boys (Alan and Lane), the couple would return to Europe for six years before heading back to Alabama in 1986.
Kent retired from the Army when he was 53. Through a series of events, he became the owner of two commercial smokers, and a new hobby was born. He became well-known in the area for a variety of smoked meats and catered many meals. Other hobbies included fishing, beekeeping, and coin- collecting.
Throughout his life, his faith was important to him. Kent served as a deacon and Sunday School teacher, both abroad and in Alabama.
Kent passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on December 7, 2023, after working all day doing what he loved best—cooking. He jumped at Missoula 1965-66 and was a NSA Life Member.
