May 7, 2014 — Serendipity has played a major role in Gulf Seafood Institute’s (GSI) board member Bob Gill’s life and career. His first attempt at forestry and wildlife management studies at the University of Maine ended in his second year when he decided to pack his bags and head to the Great Northwest to work on Mt. Hood for the U.S. Department of Forestry.
Gill left Maine, but not his serendipitous lifestyle. On a day off from his job on the mountain, on a lark he decided to visit a Navy recruiting office to find out how to enter the Naval Academy.
Both fate and luck again sided with Gill when New Jersey Senator Harrison Williams, one of those convicted for taking bribes from the Abscam sting, gave him his appointment.
After graduating from the Naval Academy with a degree in engineering, he did tours of duty on various vessels and in shipyards for ten years. During this time, Gill was selected to continue his studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he obtained degrees of Ocean Engineer and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering.
After leaving the Navy, he joined Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, MS to outfit and deliver the USS David R. Ray, a Spruance Class destroyer. Subsequently, he helped design and promote marine gas turbine propulsion systems worldwide for General Electric’s Marine Gas Turbine Unit.