Bob Gilmore got his first taste of aviation as a youngster growing up in Springfield, Missouri and dedicated the greater part of his life to the cause of General Aviation. At the old grass field airport in Springfield he worked as line boy and apprentice mechanic often trading his labors for a few precious minutes of dual instruction time. On weekends he would sell tickets for barnstormers who often toured the Mid-West in a world just beginning to realize the value of the airplane. By Just prior to World War II he was a teacher, aircraft mechanic and later a line inspector for the Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk and later the P-47 Thunderbolt.

During World War II he served as a civilian instructor with the Army Air Corps program at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. In 1948 he moved the West Texas where he spent the remainder of his long career involved in all phases of General Aviation from aircraft maintenance to flight instruction and even a stint at crop dusting. This involvement also included several years as a Designated Flight Examiner for the FAA in both Lubbock and El Paso, Texas and as Service Manager for Champs Aviation in Lubbock, Midland and El Paso, during which time he was also Chief Flight Instructor. In 1976 he moved to what was then Coronado Airport in Albuquerque, NM and later back to El Paso where he remained in his own aircraft maintenance business until his retirement.

Bob Gilmore always commanded high standards for aircraft maintenance, safety and pilot skills and promoted General Aviation in West Texas. In 1996 he was inducted into the El Paso Aviation Hall of Fame as a tribute to his many years of dedication to General Aviation.