EARL GISH, 93, CRANE OPERATOR SAN JOSE RESIDENT WORKED ON LANDMARK PROJECTS SUCH AS BART

As a Bay Area crane operator working during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, Earl Gish was instrumental in building many important structures throughout the Santa Clara Valley -- helping to transform it from farmland into a bustling metropolis.

After retiring in 1971, Mr. Gish traveled and played golf, but he never lost the love for his work. Each month he would visit the office of the San Jose Crane & Rigging Co., carrying pictures of big jobs he had worked on with the firm, to reminisce about his career.

Mr. Gish, 93, died Thursday of complications from pneumonia at the San Jose Medical Center.

Born in [Juniata,] Nebraska in 1906, [to Josephus J. and Mary A. Gish].

Mr. Gish met his wife, Ruth [Ruth E. Carman, FHS '26, daughter of Arnold Baker and Bessie A. (Bodenhamer) Carman of Farnam, Nebraska], at a Farnam High School dance.

"It was love at first sight," Mrs. Gish said. "We never dated anyone else after we met."

The couple married in 1926. They celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in November 1999.

Before coming to San Jose, the Gish family lived in Colorado and South Dakota, where Mr. Gish held jobs as an auto mechanic and a gold miner. In 1936 he got his first job as a crane operator, working for the Forest Service.

Moving to San Jose in 1942, Mr. Gish worked at Moffett Field operating a crane for the Navy during World War II. He helped erect two wooden blimp hangars at Moffett, structures which would become Santa Clara Valley landmarks.

After the war, Mr. Gish owned a pair of service stations. Then in the 1950s, he and his brother Roy started their own business at the Guadalupe Mines in Almaden. The brothers developed a method of reclaiming quicksilver by digging down to bedrock.

After shutting down the mining operation, Mr. Gish took a job operating a crane for Kelly Brothers Co. In 1961 he started working as a crane operator for San Jose Crane & Rigging, a business owned by Charlie Giguere.

"He was a low-key, steady worker that you could always count on," Giguere said. "He was a thinking man, and when he ran the crane he was always very smooth. I never once saw him get riled up or raise his voice."

Mr. Gish was a history buff who read extensively about California and the United States. He was also meticulous in chronicling his own life story. A look through his scrapbook gives a glimpse into what life was like in the valley before it became the high-tech mecca of the world.

One clip from the May 31, 1966, Mercury News shows an aerial view of a Southern Pacific Railroad derailment in the Coyote Valley. A crane working to clean up the mess is circled in red ink, with a scribbled note indicating that Mr. Gish was operating that crane. He worked 20 hours straight to clear the railroad line.

Another clip from the same month shows newspaper photos of the work he did helping to lay concrete for future BART tracks.

"He was very proud of his work," said his daughter, Carol Hansen of Sonora. "He missed only a couple days in his whole career, and that was when he was moving from one state to another."

Mr. Gish was a car buff who kept a detailed record of every vehicle he ever owned — starting with a 1924 Model T Ford and ending up with a 1984 Crown Victoria. He tallied them up and labeled them: 33 total cars, 21 new and 12 used.

Taking up golf when he was in his 50s, Mr. Gish quickly became a good player, consistently shooting in the 80s and occasionally in the 70s. He played regularly until he was 87, often getting out three times a week at San Jose Municipal Golf Course. He once shot his age when he was in his late 70s, according to his oldest grandson, Kempar Harris.

In 1968 and ’69, Mr. Gish got a unique chance to combine his love of cranes with his love of golf when he worked as a crane operator at the Bing Crosby Invitational (now known as the AT&T) at Pebble Beach. Mr. Gish ran a crane that hoisted television cameramen covering the tournament. One of the highlights for Mr. Gish was meeting Bing Crosby and Arnold Palmer.

The Gish family has lived in the same 12th Street house since 1956. The family said Mr. Gish had an encyclopedic knowledge of the Bay Area. His grandchildren would often call him for directions to different destinations, and Mr. Gish would rattle them off the top of his head.

"Family always came first for him," Hansen said. "He was always generous and helpful and he treated his in-laws like they were his own family."

San Jose Mercury News