Marshall Ellisor Gilmer

Marshall Ellisor Gilmer, a Korean veteran and the ninth of ten children born to the Rev. Luther Stanley Gilmer and Mrs. Palma Morgan Gilmer, died on December 10, 2017 at the Covenant Hospice Center in West Florida Hospital in Pensacola, Florida. Marshall was born in Eutaw, Alabama on September 12, 1930. As the son of a Methodist minister, he lived in many towns in south Alabama, northwest Florida and south Mississippi.

Marshall received his high school diploma from Pascagoula High School in 1949. He received a football scholarship at what is now called Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and went on to complete his education by receiving his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg and his PhD from the University of Mississippi in Oxford.

On August 16, 1958, Marshall married his sweetheart, Lois Cofer, a teacher of English in the Jackson Mississippi Independent School District. After marriage and graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi, Marshall taught chemistry and served as the faculty sponsor for the Judo club at Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Florida. At the insistence of his students, he also participated in Judo competitions, earning a brown belt and several trophies.

While working at Gulf Coast, Marshall was awarded a grant for advanced study in chemistry at the University of Texas in Austin. He studied and taught chemistry at the University of Texas and North Texas State University in Denton, Texas for several years and became interested in Christian education.

In Denton, Marshall was presented the opportunity to go into Christian education with Westminister College. When the college moved its campus to Florence, Mississippi, he was hired to teach chemistry and biology. While working at Westminister, Marshall attended classes during the summer at the University of Mississippi in Oxford where he earned his PhD. To be closer to his aging father, he moved his family to Santa Rosa County in 1975. He taught at Pensacola Christian College and then at Pensacola State College before retiring.

Marshall is preceded in death by his parents and seven siblings: Estelle Gilmer, Cordelia Iverson, Palma Dunn, Elizabeth Freeman, Sara Ann Wilhite, Morgan Gilmer, and Barnett Gilmer. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Lois Cofer Gilmer; sons, Barnett Gilmer and Marshall E. Gilmer; five grandchildren, Tiffany Jagel, Richard Sanders, Andrew Gilmer, Marshall C. Gilmer and Justin Gilmer; along with three great grandchildren, Bryce Jagel, Berkley Jagel, and Georgia Sanders.