John Gilmore

John Brandon "Brandy" Gilmore, 83, died at home in Denver on April 18, 2014. He is survived by his wife Shirley, brother Phil, son Kevin Gilmore Pam Dayton, daughter Anne Gilmore Przybyski Cover Matt Cover, grandchildren Gerik, Tessa and Petr Przybyski and Samantha Gilmore, and great granddaughter Piper Grey.
Brandy was born on February 22, 1931, in Topeka, Kansas, the son of Kenneth Roy and Dorothy Kittell Gilmore. When he was 16 years old Brandy graduated from Westport High School in Kansas City, MO and then went on to earn a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Washburn University in Topeka. Brandy was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity at Washburn, and was observed with several other brothers at least once jumping out of the second story window of the Kappa Sig house yelling "Geronimo!" after having first been coached in the art of landing correctly by brothers who had served as paratroopers. His family always suspected that alcohol may have been involved in this activity.
After graduating from Washburn, Brandy married Shirley Montgomery, his college sweetheart. Brandy attended graduate school at the University of Kansas and fulfilled all of the requirements for a Ph.D. in Geology but left school for work before he finished his dissertation. He later completed his thesis on the Emporia Limestone and was awarded an M.S. in Geology from the University of Kansas.
Brandy served on active duty in both the Army and Air Force and later in the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard for a total time in service of 24 years. He held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel when he was honorably discharged in 1977 and officially retired from service in 1991. Brandy was the captain of the Buckley ANGB competitive pistol team and after a particularly excellent showing at a national tournament was invited to try out for the U.S. Olympic Shooting Team, an invitation that he didn't accept because he considered his tournament success to be a once-in-a-lifetime event and not indicative of his actual more modest skill level. Immediately after the Korean War he was stationed in England, and during the Vietnam War he was stationed in Korea, which caused his family to joke that he was always one war behind the action.
After working for the Kansas Highway Department for several years, Brandy was hired in 1962 as the second geologist for the Colorado Highway Department and later Colorado Department of Transportation. After his supervisor left the employ of the highway department under a dark cloud of scandal less than six months after he was hired, Brandy became the head of the geotechnical unit, a position he held for 36 years until his retirement in 1998. Under his supervision, the geotechnical unit grew and developed innovative solutions to geotechnical problems through both in-house research and by adapting the results of research performed elsewhere to apply to geotechnical problems all over the state. The CDOT geotechnical unit was recognized nationally for their cutting edge work in geotechnical engineering, and in 1996 Brandy was named "Mr. Northwest Geotech," an honor bestowed by his colleagues in the Northwest Geotechnical Engineering Alliance. This is the highest honor that a state DOT geoscientist can receive and is given to recipients in recognition for their many years of sustained contributions to the geosciences. Brandy was a dedicated professional and intellectually engaged in his work. He took great pride in the accomplishments of the geotechnical unit, especially the work done during multi-year projects building the interstate in Glenwood Canyon and over Vail Pass. Brandy loved his work and was always ready to talk about the projects he and his staff were working on or his favorite projects from the past. As a result of family road trips both of his children could at an early age have held forth at great length and detail on landslide and slope instability problems for different highways throughout the state. Although some of the information he imparted to his children remains obscure to this day, the overall effect was to imbue in his children with an appreciation for the beauty and complexity of the natural world. Brandy was fiercely loyal to his staff, and shared their successes when many of them went on to become prominent and well-respected engineers in the private sector.
After retirement, Brandy occupied his time with family, gardening and various tasks on the computer, including compiling, expanding and digitizing the genealogical research begun by his parents in the 1930s. Ever the engineer, he individually weighed his entire tomato crop and entered the data on a spreadsheet so he could track the statistics from season to season. He had a sustained interest in archaeology and helped his son Kevin with his thesis research in archaeology by entering the over 10, 000 artifact catalog from the Bayou Gulch site into a database. Years later, Brandy also assisted Kevin during fieldwork to collect cores for his dissertation research, gladly assisted in the somewhat tedious laboratory analysis of the sediments, and even contributed money for two radiocarbon dates on sediment cores.
Brandy was an enthusiastic connoisseur of beer, wine and music. He loved both traditional jazz, particularly Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong, and classical music, particularly French and English composers of the 20th century. Later in life when his mobility was limited he found great pleasure in listening to his extensive CD collection, which at his death numbered over a thousand. He will be deeply missed by friends and family.
Services will be held at Ft. Logan National Cemetery, April 30, 2014 at 11:00, and a celebration of life at 2:00 pm at the Bull and Bush Tavern, 4700 Cherry Creek Drive South, Denver.