Charles E. Gilbert, Sr.

Biloxi native, Charles E. Gilbert, Sr. was born in October1927 to Alphonse and Henrietta Gilbert. One of twelve children, he was expected, at an early age, to help provide for the needs of the family and would spend hours at the beach and on Biloxi’s Back Bay fishing to help supplement the family’s meals. At the age of 12, he left school and began working at the seafood factories as an off loader, hauling sacks of oysters from the boats to the processing plants. Following a brief stint in the Army, Charles returned to Biloxi and found work at a roofing company.

In May 1954, an opportunity arose for Charles setting his career path on a new trajectory. With the invention of the automatic shrimp peeling machine by J.M. Lapeyre, the seafood industry was revolutionized with the ability to process 1,000 pounds of shrimp per hour. This opened the need for a field serviceman to provide support to all the factories along the Gulf Coast.

Charles entered a contract with “The Peeler’s Company”, later known as the Laitram Corporation. As a young man with a growing family, this began a 35-year career. The seafood industry does not rest during its active season, so Charles, as the service technician, would receive calls at all hours from factory owners needing assistance. When dealing with a perishable commodity, time is of the essence and Charles took his responsibilities seriously. He would work long days making service and maintenance calls from Bay St. Louis, MS to Bayou Le Batre, AL. As the Laitram Corporation expanded, Charles would travel to the countries of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Greenland, Finland Mexico, Panama and Pakistan installing machines and instructing personnel on operation and maintenance of the peeling machines. This, of course, took him away from his family for extended periods, but his work ethic and dedication served as a great education for his nine children.

Charles Gilbert was well liked and well respected by those he worked with and loved the Coast and its people. As a humble man, it is with great pleasure we honor him in the Maritime & Seafood Industry’s 2017 Heritage Hall of Fame Tradesman category on what would have been his 90th birthday.