A Wonderful Life: Gills Share 65 Years Together

Married 65 years and with family ties in Branford stretching back 110 years, Robert and Dorothy Gill say theirs is a “wonderful life.” It’s given them the rewards of family, friends and the opportunity to make meaningful contributions to their community.

Many Branford residents know the Gills for many reasons. Robert Gill first joined the Branford Police Department (BDP) as a supernumerary in 1962, became a sworn officer in 1964, and rose through the ranks, becoming Branford’s Chief of police from 1998 through his retirement in 2007.

Robert Gill recalls BPD’s total strength was approximately 18 members when he started out in the 1960s.

“By the time I left, it was, I believe, 53. So I was there for a lot of the growth,” he said, adding of his policing career, “It was decidedly less stressful than it might have been in other places, but it still had all the requirements to get the job done. You still didn’t know what was going to come up. And most of what happens in a police career, at some point or other, it has happened to the Branford Police Department. But certainly, not at the volume like you would get in a large community.”

It allowed him the chance to get involved in other ways to give back to his town, he added.

“That’s the difference between being a chief of police in a community like Branford versus a bigger town,” he said. “Branford’s a good town. So, I was afforded the opportunity to do some of these things because of the nature of this town.”

Gill served on the Board of Directors of the Greater New Haven Urban League, as president of the Branford Police Benevolent Association, on the board of the Branford Savings Bank as an incorporator, as a member of Branford Rotary, and three terms on the board of the Branford Community Foundation.

The Gills have always been an active family with their church, St. Stephen’s AME Zion, including Robert Gill’s involvement in many capacities. Located on Rogers Street, St. Stephen’s was established as Branford’s first African-American church more than 99 years ago. Gill helped with the church’s start of Branford Day Care, established in 1974 as the town’s first public day care. Now named Branford Early Learning Center (BELC) and located in the former Pine Orchard School, the program today is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). As a State Department of Education funded agency, BELC provides children of working parents with high quality, affordable child care and early childhood education.

Gill was also involved with the initiation of St. Stephen’s Human Relations Council, with which Dorothy Gill also served and which developed Branford’s annual Martin Luther King Breakfast. The annual event started at St. Stephen’s in 1985 and is now entering its 37th year.

Looking Back

Like most couples, the Gills have a great story about the first time they met. Robert, who entered the military soon after he graduated with the Branford High School Class of 1951, had just completed his military service, including serving in Korea, and was arriving back home.

“We met in 1954,” Dorothy said. “I met him the day that he was released from the Army, at my cousin’s house in New Haven. His buddy picked him up from the railroad station and they stopped by.”

Her cousin’s home in the Elm Haven housing project at Dixwell and Webster Avenues was close to Dorothy’s, and a popular spot where a lot of people visited, she said. Robert picked up the story from there.

“When we went in, anybody else that was there was willing to greet me, but she took one look at me and turned her nose up in the air—and that caught my attention,” he said. “I just thought to myself, ‘Who was this little fresh kid?’”

At the time, Robert was 21. Dorothy, 16, was a senior at Hillhouse High School while also working with the telephone company as a long-distance operator. Every day, on her way home from work, she’d stop by her cousin’s house. After Robert got out of the service, he began stopping by, too.

“During the time before I went back to work, I was spending a lot of time being a civilian again, so I went there several times, and she was there,” he said. “We talked a couple of times, and I did ask her to go out, probably to the movies…and she suddenly asked me if I would take her to the senior prom! Here I was, an Army veteran, going to the senior prom. But that’s how it all started.”

The couple married on Oct. 6, 1956. It wasn’t too long before they found a home on Evergreen Place in Robert’s childhood Branford neighborhood.

“We were very lucky,” Dorothy said. “Six months after we got married, we bought this house, and we’ve been here ever since.”

The Gills met, married, and began their family during the Civil Rights era, Robert noted.

“You have to remember, where she grew up in New Haven and where I grew up here in Branford; we both came up in our adult years through the Civil Rights era,” Robert said. “So a lot of things were a lot different for us; but they were getting better all the time, being fortunate enough to live in Branford.”

Robert’s family ties in Branford go back 110 years. He grew up in the same area of town here his family had lived for generations, as had many others in their close-knit community.

“Evergreen Place and the adjoining street of Oak Street—that was my life,” Robert said, noting the area came about due to the former Malleable Iron Fittings (MIF) Company, which had its factory site nearby.

“Evergreen Place really got its birth because of the MIF,” he said. “There was hardly any place where African Americans could buy homes. That started through the MIF. When these homes on Evergreen Place were built, they were built for the Black population. So this was an all-Black neighborhood when we bought hour home here, and it was great, it was really great.”

“Most of the Black people lived on Evergreen Place, Oak Street and Rogers Street where the church is, and that was it, then some scattered people in different places all over the town,” adds Dorothy.

A few years into his police career, Robert, via the new Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, attended the University of New Haven as a student of its new criminal justice program.

“I was able to take advantage of that because the town began a policy to cover the cost of tuition that was not covered by the U.S. government program—and because of her,” he said, nodding to his wife. “All the time that I had to work, or go to school when I wasn’t working, she ran everything, and ran it well.”

“I had two babies at that point,” said Dorothy, who had continued working with the phone company until their first child arrived.

Dorothy did return to work years later, completing a 38-year-career with Echlin Manufacturing in Branford. She retired at 62.

The Gills raised their two children in Branford, John and Roberta, and are now helping out with their grandson. Many residents know their daughter, Roberta ‘Bobi’ Gill-Brooks, through her service as Branford’s elected tax collector for two consecutive terms, 2017 to 2021.

When the kids were small, Dorothy said the Gill house was the neighborhood gathering spot for kids who’d come over to play and hold baseball games in the backyard. Unlike their own children, many of those kids did not ultimately come back to make their home in Branford, much less the old neighborhood, after leaving for college or to begin careers.

Robert said he didn’t expect the Gills to become the last of the original African American families to buy a home in the neighborhood, but, as it turns out, they are. When he first moved here with Dorothy, Robert said he pretty much expected the area would stay the same.

“We didn’t see the next generation growing up and moving out. Which is what all kids do—we just didn’t realize the day was coming so quickly that we were going to lose our youth,” he said.

He also remembers seeing the neighborhood begin to change from what once had been “perceived a designated area” for African American families.

“Somewhere along in the 1970s, it slowly started to change, because the original people that owned homes here either died or moved on, and the White families started moving here. It was like there was no stigma attached to a White family moving into a Black neighborhood. In some sense, it was beautiful,” said Robert. “But on the other hand, we lost a big chunk of our African American population because [they] were not replaced by African American families. But the White families moving in were great. It became a great area, as it always has been.”

Married 65 Years and Counting

Sometime in the fifth decade of their married life, Dorothy began planning for what she hoped would be an amazing 60th wedding anniversary celebration. Held at their church, it would gather not only the Gills and their family, but all of their friends who would also be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversaries that year, too.

“When we had our 60th anniversary, it was her dream and intention that we were going to have a joint 60th anniversary with all of our associates who grew up with us,” said Robert. “The year between 1955 and 1956, we were both in no fewer than six or seven weddings. So, all those people that got married around the same time as we did, after so many of them had passed their 50th; she had looked forward, at our 60th, to celebrating as one. Unfortunately, most of them didn’t make it that long. So many of them were close to it.”

The Gills celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with a surprise party thrown by their children at a Branford restaurant. A room in their home displays a beautiful, framed wedding-day image of the couple that decorated their 60th anniversary party.

Next, seemingly in the blink of an eye, the Gills recently reached their 65th anniversary. Of course, you have to ask, “What’s the secret to being happily married for 65 years?”

“Communication,” Dorothy answered. “Really and truly loving each other and being willing to talk it out. You have to put each other’s needs, when it’s necessary, before your own…You have to be flexible; you can’t be hard and fast.”

Robert added that, early on, when their family was growing and he broached the idea of buying a bigger home, Dorothy never felt the need.

“She’s always said, ‘I don’t see any need for that; I’m happy where we are.’ In that regard, things could have been bigger, not necessarily better,” he said.

“We didn’t need to have the biggest, most luxurious house,” Dorothy said. “Ours is comfortable, we’ve taken care of it, we’ve added to it. We didn’t have to have the biggest car. I was satisfied with what I was doing, and he was satisfied with what he was doing, and we were able to send our kids to school and do what we had to do.”

“What she’s saying, in a lot of words, is we’ve had a good life,” Robert puts in.

“It’s a wonderful life,” Dorothy agrees. “We couldn’t ask for anything more.”