Sheila Hildebrand Gibson

Sheila Hildebrand Mehlman Gibson was born in New York City on April 28, 1947 and died January 11, 2024 in Austin, Texas, two years and five days after the death of her son Travis. She is survived by her sister Linda Insler and three beloved nieces, Staci Gura, Denise Roshco, and Jennifer Spielman, who she always carried in her heart.

Her friends were mostly professional colleagues. If you were her friend you knew it. She was loyal. She was variously referred to as fierce, witty, articulate, and erudite, wise, sarcastic, argumentative, insulting - and amazing. Her word craft was second to none. The Chicago Manual of Style was her bible. Fonts and punctuation were important. Research was her game.

While in New York, and after moving to Austin, she worked at what was then Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc., New York’s oldest engineering firm, in marketing, where her exceptional writing skills made her a valuable employee. It was an association that continued for decades, and of which she was very proud. The list of project proposals she managed included some of the biggest and most consequential transportation and civil engineering projects in the country, notably the Superconducting Supercollider in Texas.

Although she lived in Austin for the last 35 years of her life, she was a proud New Yorker through and through, with the wit and personality to prove it. She loved jogging in Riverside Park and walks through Central Park, and going shopping down Broadway to Zabar’s and Citarella’s with their bespectacled fish displays, and the Korean vegetable and flower markets, or having a toasted bialy or bagel with a cafe au lait at one of the cafes along Columbus Avenue. And there were weekends spent sailing with friends from Staten Island into New York Harbor. And so many meals with dear friends.

She had her haunts in Austin as well: Book People! Of course! An outing there to peruse the books over coffee and pain au chocolat, or shopping at Whole Foods or lunching under the trees at Central Market were welcome pastimes. Sheila loved brunches with friends and family. Magnolia Cafe, Kerbey Lane or Sweetish Hill, were Sheila and Travis favorites. They even named the dogs after Austin things: Kerbey Lane and Spam (Spamarama). Sheila loved that Austin had so many parks. Outings to Zilker Park for a swim at the shallow (warm) end of Barton Springs Pool, or picnics at Reed Park were always high on the list for Sheila and Travis.

Once in Austin, The New York Times was her lifeline to the city, and she read it assiduously, and was always pleased when her letters to The Editor were published. A good chunk of Sunday was reserved for the Sunday paper, which first dog Watson always needed help to bring in.

Sheila loved the arts, and architecture, but her true love was English literature. She probably could have lectured on English history. Her love of reading and music, were traits she shared with her son, to whom she dedicated her life.

Sheila was a feminist and champion of the poor and downtrodden. She was a supporter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Her ashes and Travis’ will be interred side by side in Austin’s Remembrance Gardens during a private ceremony at 10AM on April 27, 2024.