W. Gibbs Herbruck

AIKEN – W. Gibbs Herbruck died on February 15, 2008 after a twelve-month battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Dorothy Compton Marks Herbruck with whom he observed a 54th wedding anniversary on October 17, 2007. He is also survived by five adopted children. His early education was in public schools in Canton, OH. He was a fourth generation Cantonion on his father’s side and a fifth generation Cantonion on his mother’s side through whom he traced his ancestry back to John Holland who came to this country in 1620 landing at Plymouth Rock. He was president of his senior class at Lehman High School in Canton. He then went to Princeton University where he signed up immediately for the field artillery ROTC program. He trained for this service at Ft. Bragg and Ft. Still and served in the Philippines but missed combat because the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs had been dropped a month earlier. After the war, he was graduated from Princeton University earning a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology with a minor in English and was taken into the Order of the Sigma Xi. He then attended the University of Virginia School of Law where he was a member of the Phi Delta Phi Honorary Fraternity. After graduation he practiced law in Canton for 53 years before retiring in 1994. In Canton, he served as President of the Stark County Bar Association in which capacity he was one of the principal draftsmen of the association’s new constitution. He also served as president of the Canton Art Institute (now the Canton Museum of Art), and was a trustee of the Canton Public Library Association, and later the Stark County District Library and was also a Charter Trustee of Canton Country Day School and the Stark County Blue Coats. He was a member of the Canton Club, Brookside Country Club of Canton and Rolling Rock Club in Ligonier, PA. In Aiken he served as a Trustee of Historic Aiken Foundation, and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Trustees of Friends of Hopelands and Rye Patch, and as a Trustee of the Hitchcock Foundation (now Hitchcock Woods Foundation) and as one of its first Trustees Emeriti. He was also a member of the Green Boundary Club, and Springdall Hall in Camden. Serving the Green Boundary Club and the Hitchcock Woods Foundation as a draftsman of their new bylaws. He enjoyed swimming and riflery in boyhood and later greatly enjoyed lawn tennis, golf and especially riding quiet horses. He also had a lifelong interest in steam trains, trans Atlantic liners and motor cars. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to All Saints Anglican Church, 110 Fairfield Street, Aiken, SC 29801, the Hitchcock Woods Foundation, or the Aiken SPCA, 401 Wire Rd., Aiken, SC 29801. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 AM Tuesday at All Saints Anglican Church. Father Garrett Clanton will officiate. Interment will be held privately. Shellhouse Funeral Home, Inc., 924 Hayne Ave., Aiken, SC To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of W. Gibbs Herbruck, please visit our flower store.