Gordon L. Gilmore, public relations executive in Trans World Airlines, Inc., was born 4 August 1908 in Freeborn, Minnesota, the son of Ansel E. and Bertha Scoville Gilmore. He graduated from Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota in 1930. Between 1930 and 1944 Gilmore worked as reporter, copy reader, news editor and radio commentator for the Mason City (Iowa) Globe-Gazette, the Omaha Bee-News, and the St. Paul Dispatch-Pioneer Press. Following active military service as a naval lieutenant, 1944-1946, Gilmore joined Transcontinental and Western Air, Inc. (now Trans World Airlines) as manager of the New York News Bureau, with the additional responsibility of directing Eastern Region public relations. He remained in public relations with TWA until retirement in 1973, with appointments to the following positions: assistant to vice-president-Public Relations, 1947; director of Public Relations, 1948; vice-president-Public Relations, 1951 (a corporate office); and vice-president of Public Affairs, 1973.
Gilmore personally directed major company promotional activities and anniversary celebrations in the 1950's and `60's, often coordinating TWA's international publicity programs. Also, he helped create a new corporate image for TWA beginning in 1958 and he aided in the 1961 reorganization and expansion of the company and its objectives, following a struggle between the airline and Howard Hughes and Hughes Tool Company (the parent company) for control of the airline. He was a member ofTWA's Management Council, and served as chairman of the Contributions Committee and as secretary to the Board of Directors' Consumer Affairs Committee, in addition to his involvement in many outside aviation and public relations organizations. Gilmore served as a consultant to the United States State Department in the late 1960's, and in 1969 the Gallagher Report poll voted him Corporate Public Relations Man of the Year. In 1972 Gilmore was awarded the Distinguished Service Award of the Public Relations Society of America, New York Chapter.
Since retirement Gilmore has made his home in Pompano Beach, Florida, where he heads Gilmore Groups Associated, a select public relations consulting firm.
