To say Cramer M. “Skip” Gilmore has led an interesting life would be a significant understatement.
His curriculum vitae includes assignments in labor, private industry and the federal government over a professional life spanning 42 years. The latter work comprised duties as an officer with the U.S. Army and the CIA.
“Yes, you could say it was interesting,” said Gilmore, a native of Charleroi who graduated from Bellmar High School and now lives in Alexandria, Virginia. “Having served in the private sector, for organized labor, and lastly the federal government, my work career touched upon intriguing challenges, interaction with superbly talented co-workers and the full spectrum of workplace dynamics.”
Gilmore, 69, is the son of late Cramer M. Gilmore and Marie Elizabeth Braun Gilmore.
“My father and his relatives worked over 300 combined years in the steel mills in the Monongahela Valley,” Gilmore said.
He served as duty officer in the Department of the Army Communications Center at the Pentagon. He rotated to Vietnam in 1968 and worked at Allied Headquarters at Tan Son Nhut Airbase as Communications Center officer for General Creighton Adams, Commander Military Assistance Command Vietnam.
He was awarded a Bronze Star for meritorious service in Vietnam and returned to the Pentagon as a captain to serve as an intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency.
It was during his second assignment at the Pentagon that Gilmore met Susan Jean Anderson, a native or Ramsey, N.J., who was working in D.C. They were married on March 25, 1972, at St. Paul's Catholic Church in Ramsey and celebrated their 43rd anniversary this year.
In 1970, Gilmore took a job in Washington D.C. as a management intern with the Airline Pilots Association, the union for all United States flag carrier, except American Airlines.
“Norman Weintraub, the director of ALPA's Research Department, who assisted me in organizing the non-professional staff, left ALPA to become director of research for the Teamsters International Union in Washington, D.C.,” Gilmore said. “He recruited me to join him as assistant director of research.”
The Teamsters, headquartered in downtown Washington, assigned Gilmore to assist with their “national master” contracts involving multiple companies representing many locations. These negotiations involved over 1.5-million long-haul freight drivers, car haulers and warehousemen.
“Our department provided research, economic and language proposals for negotiations of the national master agreements,” he said. “Among other well-known companies, I supported contract negotiations with (UPS), Honeywell and others. Some negotiations lasted months and strikes were common during the 1970s.”
Knowing that Gilmore was not content to work “merely as a researcher,” John Greely, director of the Teamsters' Warehouse Division, put him in touch with Eugene Hubbard, president of the union's Local 246 in Washington.
Gilmore never had the opportunity to take on Giant Food, however, because he had completed a master's degree in business at George Mason University and left the Teamsters to join Computer Sciences Corporation, where he trained as a systems analyst.
CSC assigned Gilmore to the Navy's Armitage Airfield in China Lake, Calif., where he wrote the “functional description” of nine financial subsystems and prepared flow diagrams from which programmers automated their operations.
CSC assigned Gilmore to an information technology team at the CIA, where he was recruited by his CIA supervisor.
“I joined the agency in the mid-1980s as a government employee,” Gilmore said.
After 10 years with CIA, Gilmore was directed to work with Environmental Protection Agency regulators to obtain air permits for their massive turbine generators at the CIA headquarters' central power plant in Langley, Va.
As chief of the Headquarters Environmental Safety staff, he administered the Clean Air, Clean Water, Hazardous and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act permits for the Headquarters Compound.
He also served as executive officer for the CIA's Facilities Management Group and as a division chief in the agency's printing and photography plant.
After 25 years, Gilmore retired in December 2008. In recognition of his meritorious service he was awarded the Career Intelligence Medal.
He and his wife are the parents of two children and have two grandchildren. He is an elder and 25-year member of Grace Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Va.
He enjoys rekindling memories of growing up in Charleroi.
“I went to First Street and Prospect Avenue in Charleroi, where my maternal grandparents lived,” he said. “From there, I drove by the house we lived in at 614 Crest Ave., and I also visited Craig Stephenson, a childhood friend who served as a Marine in Vietnam.”
Other friends during those early years were brothers John and Paul Valovich and retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William “Gus” Pagonis.
“There is such a warm spot in my heart for this wonderful town,” he said. “Another joy was “saving my allowance to buy tickets for rides at Kennywood Park, where we went for the school picnic.
“There are so many fond memories in Charleroi and the Mon Valley – and many other places I've been. Like that classic movie says, it's been a wonderful life.”
Ron Paglia is a freelance writer for Trib Total Media.
