Richard Gimbel

Gimbel was born July 26, 1898, in Atlantic City, the son of Minnie (née Mastbaum) and Ellis A. Gimbel.[1] His father was chairman of the board at the Gimbel Brothers Company which his grandfather, Adam Gimbel, founded in Vincennes, Indiana in 1842.[1] His mother was the sister of theatre owner Jules Mastbaum who was married to Etta Wedell Mastbaum. Gimbel studied in Europe and graduated with a B.A. from Yale University with honors in 1920.[1] He served with the 310th Field Artillery Regiment during World War I rising from private to first lieutenant.[1] After taking a year off to travel the world, Gimbel worked for his family's business overseeing the construction of their Philadelphia store in 1927 and then as a vice president of Gimbel Brothers Company. In 1935, he left Gimbel Brothers after a dispute with his cousin Bernard Gimbel over strategy and moved to Miami where he profitably ran a Richards store. In 1940, he joined the Army Air Corp as a lieutenant colonel and with the Eighth Air Force as a pilot during World War II.[1] In 1951, he was appointed Professor of Air Science and Tactics at Yale University.[1] In 1953, he retired as full colonel in 1953 and stayed with the library as curator of aeronautical literature.[1] He was also a fellow of Pierson College.[1]

In 1942, during the London blitz, he visited a bombed‐out bookstore in London and purchased a trunk of aeronautical books.[1] Thereafter, he was a voracious collector of books, specializing in Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, and Thomas Paine in addition to anything aeronautical.[1] He purchased the Philadelphia home of Edgar Allan Poe, filled it with his non-aeronautical collection, and presented it to the city of Philadelphia as the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum.[1] Upon his death, he had over 100,000 items in his aeronautical collection.[1]

Gimbel was married to Julia de Fernex Millhiser.[1] They had two sons,[1] Roger Gimbel and Dan Gimbel;[2] and five daughters,[1] Sally Gimbel Taussig,[3] Ann Gimbel Goff,[4][5] Joyce Gimbel Trifield,[6] Patricia Gimbel Lewis,[7] and Pamela Gimbel Lehman.[8][9] On May 27, 1970, Gimbel died of a heart attack in Munich, Germany.[1]