Harvey Ronald Gilbert, died at his home in State College on Saturday, February 8, 2025. Dr. Gilbert was a respected and dynamic professor, researcher and university administrator, in the field of Speech Language Pathology. He was born in Boston on March 30, 1943, to Mary and Charles Gilbert. He attended Boston Latin School, received bachelor’s degrees from Boston University and Hebrew Teacher’s College, and earned his M.S. and Ph.D at the University of Wisconsin. He went on to become a full professor at Penn State University and the University of Connecticut. He also served as Chair of the Departments of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences at both universities.
As an administrator he earned a well-deserved reputation for integrity, fairness, effective mentoring and support of junior faculty. Dr. Gilbert taught highly rated courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, primarily in the areas of speech and voice science. He was particularly known for his dry sense of humor which he used effectively to make complex science topics palatable to students. He was a mentor for both Masters and Doctoral students, supervised their research projects, and played a critical role in helping to train the next generation of speech, language, and hearing scientists.
Harvey Gilbert’s research included seminal investigation of how infants develop the agility to vocalize and how various health factors impact voice and speech production. These included studies of smoking, reflux, miner’s black lung disease, Parkinson’s, stuttering and Down Syndrome. He served as a reviewer for the leading journals in speech and hearing science and furthered his research activities when he was awarded Visiting Professorships at University College, London, The University of Sydney in Australia and The University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
Dr. Gilbert was active in the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA), the leading professional organization of its kind in the country. He was elected to be a Fellow of ASHA and served on several key committees, including chairing the one responsible for overseeing the academic accreditation of the over 300 speech-language pathology and audiology programs in the country.
Harvey was married to Centre County native Heather Dale Ricker-Gilbert for 54 years. They moved to Tolland, Connecticut in 1990 and returned to State College in 2010 to retire, renew old friendships, and take care of Heather’s mother, Virginia Dale Ricker. Harvey grew up spending summers at Nantasket Beach on the south shore of Boston and in later life spent his summers at Lake Mokoma in Sullivan County PA.
Harvey always said his proudest accomplishment was his three children: Jacob Ricker-Gilbert, (West Lafayette, Indiana) Rebecca Dale Elman (Boalsburg, PA) and Alexander Ricker-Gilbert (Jacksonville, Fla). He loved his daughters-in-law Amanda Rigterink and Hilary Ricker-Gilbert and his grandchildren Ava Gilbert, Ian Gilbert and Theodore Elman. He is survived by his sister Ethel Curelop and her husband Edward Curelop of Brockton, Mass and their sons Mark, Jonathan and Gary. Harvey spent many hours over the years walking his Labrador Retrievers, Goodwin, Tucker and Layla.
Outside of university life, Harvey was a wonderful cook and was especially skilled at cooking Indian food. He served on the Tolland, CT town council, coached girls youth softball, was a boy scout leader, and worked at the State College Food Bank. He belonged to Congregation Brit Shalom in State College. As an avid gardener, Harvey was an active member of the Penn State Master Gardeners. The group appreciated how Harvey made them laugh and stick to their meeting agenda. Members of the Master Gardeners kindly provided many months of meals for Harvey during his illness.
Our family appreciates all of Harvey and Heather’s friends who offered support, food and comfort. Heather is particularly grateful to her sister and brother-in-law, Jinny and George Wilkes of Arlington, Virginia, who spent many months in State College supporting Heather while Harvey was ill.
In memory of Harvey, donations may be made in his name to one of the following organizations:
1. For glioblastoma research: https://www.gbmresearch.org
2. For Congregation Brit Shalom in State College: https://www.britshalomstatecollege.org/donations-payments,
3. For Penn State Extension Centre County Master Gardener Program. Donations will go to the training of future master gardeners. Contributions in Harvey’s name may be mailed to: 420 Holmes Street. Bellefonte, PA 16823.
A Memorial Service to celebrate Harvey’s life will be held on Sunday afternoon, April 6, at 2:00 at Congregation Brit Shalom, 620 East Hamilton Ave, State College PA. Everyone is invited to a reception following the service at Heather and Harvey’s home.