Deceased March 10, 1992
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In Memory
So full of life was Gilbert “Gib” Cox Hecker that we are shocked to learn that he lives on only in our hearts. Gib died unexpectedly on March 10, 1992, at the age of 34.
Gib prepared for Amherst at the John Burroughs School in St. Louis. Friends from John Burroughs remember him for his limitless enthusiasm, his intelligence, his creativity, his energy and his great spirit and love of life. His Amherst friends remember him the same way. He was one of the most joyous, interested and thoughtful people one could ever hope to meet.
When Gib began senior year, he carried with him an article he had cut from the newspaper the previous spring about a college commencement address. The speaker had told his audience of graduates, “From now on, no one will ever be paid to listen to you. There won’t be any professors to read the papers you write at the last minute the night before class. From now on, you’ll have to earn people’s attention.”
Gib needn’t have worried. He was the last person to fear commanding the attention or respect of others. You liked him, you respected him, you enjoyed his company, you got a kick simply out of being in his presence. At Amherst, Gib competed on the wrestling team, sang with the Amherst College Glee Club and Chorus and majored in mathematics.
Gib lived on the second floor of Moore during our junior year. He was enormous fun to be with—he was equally ready for a party or for a serious intellectual discussion. Hallmates recall, among other things, his contagious excitement for the dawning personal computer era. This was 1978, ancient history by computer standards, when students still typed their papers on Smith-Coronas. Gib knew about computers well before the rest of us. We can still see him talking passionately about the importance of learning BASIC, a computer language, and about entering the new computer age. “I can explain this in simple terms,” he would say, and his explanations would hold his less computer-literate classmates rapt.
Gib’s love of technology directed his career choices. After Amherst, he founded his own business, Alpha Beta Data, a fledgling computer company in the St. Louis area. He then went to work for Digital Equipment Corporation, but he never lost the desire to be his own boss. He became a computer consultant specializing in making diverse computers talk with each other. The company he founded, Intersystems Incorporated, numbered among its clients the U.S. Postal Service, the St. Louis Children’s Hospital, various defense contractors and the McDonnell Douglas Company. Gib’s company was on the verge of hiring additional employees at the time of his death.
Gib’s father, George Hecker ’43, spoke for all of us when he described Gib as “one of the most delightful people I’ve ever known.” Gib’s passing left his family and friends in St. Louis and his Amherst family devastated and shocked. We will always remember Gib as one who truly enjoyed life. The world is a poorer place without his smile.
Michael Levin ’80