Al Gilbertson:
CLASS OF 1968
Tehachapi High SchoolClass of 1968
Tehachapi, CA
Fresno Pacific UniversityClass of 1977
Fresno, CA
Defense Language InstituteClass of 1972
Monterey, CA
San Jose Christian CollegeClass of 1972
San jose, CA
Al's Story
From Tehachapi, I attended college in San Jose; San Jose State for one year and San Jose Bible College for one year before entering into the service. I met the love of my life at the Bible College and just before entering the service, Laura Hird (from Cottage Grove, Oregon) and I were married. I was about to get drafted (low draft number), so I joined the Air Force (Air Force Security Services) where I worked at the National Security Agency in Washington DC as a Russian linguist. My dad passed away and I left the service to help my mom with the rock shop. Once she could handle it, I finished up college in Fresno Calif. There, I put my way through school doing custom gem cutting for a jeweler, who then hired me when I finished school. He also paid for me to take the courses from GIA (where I work now) to become a gemologist. Our only child, Amanda, was born in Fresno.
We moved to Oregon in 1984 and opened our own business in 1986, providing jewelry appraisal services for over 50 jewelers in the Pacific Northwest. The offices of Gem Profiles were at Zell Bros Jewelers in Portland O...Expand for more
regon for 15 years. It¿s easy to say that Laura provided office support, but it was much more than that. She handled the books, computer programming, client contact and editing of my appraisals (the hard part)!! All, while she was keeping up our house. While unsung, she was essential to our success. For a short while, we also owned the wholesale repair and manufacturing shop (while still providing appraisals) located at Zell Bros. In May 2000, I accepted a position in research at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) in Carlsbad CA. In 2007, GIA published a book that I wrote, titled American Cut--The First 100 Years. Industry reviews have been very good.
Our daughter (Amanda) started college in 2000, after receiving an athletic scholarship to attend Valparaiso University in Indiana. She was a pitcher for the college fast pitch softball team and graduated in 2004. She married in March 2005 and lives in North Carolina where her husband finished grad school; he works for Chapel Hill in meteorological research. Amanda is a property manager for over 300 units in the Raleigh area.
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