Edmund J. Gilbert, 93, veteran cop

IF YOU WERE a Philly cop in 1945, it was not a good idea to give a traffic ticket to the head of your local draft board.

Even though World War II was ending, the draft wasn't. And Edmund J. Gilbert, father of three and a police officer, was drafted.

Whether that was really the reason he was drafted no one is sure, but that was the family legend. Anyway, after serving in the Army stateside for several months, he was discharged and went back to the Police Department.

Eddie Gilbert was a Philly cop for 25 years, working just about every job on the force, and became one of the first officers to be hired for security by the school district when he retired in 1968.

The lifelong South Philadelphia resident died Tuesday at the age of 93.

Eddie was a popular figure in the Two Street neighborhood, where he was highly regarded as a neighbor, friend and a cop who was always there to help whomever needed him.

He was proud that he never had to shoot anyone, "but he did thump quite a few," said his son Michael.

Eddie Gilbert was a member of the "Greatest Generation," comprised of those who endured the Depression and the war and emerged better people for it.

He was born in Philadelphia to Edmund J. and Sarah Gilbert. He had to drop out of school in the eighth grade in 1929, when the Great Depression hammered the nation. He finally earned his GED in his 50s from Northeast High School.

Eddie joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, President Franklin Roosevelt's program to put people to work, and helped build roads in Western Pennsylvania.

He then worked as a longshoreman at the Chase Bag Co., in Philly, and the New York Shipbuilding Co., in Camden.

He joined the Police Department in 1943. He was a member of the Motor Bandit Patrol, the Highway Patrol, was a street cop and, finally, homicide detective.

One notable experience came during the riots in North Philadelphia in 1964 when he was hit on the head by a brick. He was taken to the old Philadelphia General Hospital, which was so crowded with the injured that his wound was stitched by a janitor.

Eddie's family eventually grew to six children. He would pile the kids into his '49 Hudson and take them to Valley Forge Park, using the East River Drive because there was no Schuylkill Expressway in those days.

He would let the kids run over the rolling hills where George Washington's forces froze in 1777-1778, "until they were exhausted," his son said. Eddie married Kathryn Trainer in 1939. She died in 1977.

He amused his family with a somewhat quirky sense of humor. If you turned up your nose at something he was eating, he would say, "You don't know what you're missing."

If you asked him for a quarter, he'd most likely give you a nickel and comment, "They don't call me Big- Hearted Ed for nothing."

He would also remind his children and grandchildren that they were living in the "best years of their lives."

"Once, while driving down 2nd Street, he started telling me all the houses he'd lived in," his son said. "I was shocked at how many there were. He said, 'When you're poor, you move a lot.' "

Eddie worked for the school district until 1984, putting in a total of 41 years of law-enforcement with the city.

He also is survived by two other sons, Edmund J. III and Kyran; two daughters, Kathleen Powell and Theresa Gara; 15 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren; and his longtime companion, Marie Kelly.

Services: Funeral Mass 10 a.m. today at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, 3rd and Wolf streets. Friends may call at 8 a.m. at the Murphy-Ruffenach Funeral Home, 3rd and Wolf. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery, in West Conshohocken.