Alexander Angus Gillis

OBITUARY: For Alexander Angus Gillis from the Gainesville Sun, The (FL)-August 30, 1995

Alexander Angus Gillis Retired civil engineer Alexander Angus Gillis of Gainesville, a member of the University of Florida Hall of Fame, died Monday at Palm Garden Nursing Center. He was 99.

Mr. Gillis received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Florida in 1923, where he was active in ROTC, American Association of Engineers and the Wahaloosa Club.

Pictured in UF's Hall of Fame from the class in 1923, Mr. Gillis also was president of the Benton Engineering Society and a member of Sigma Tau Engineering Honorary and Phi Kappa Phi Honorary fraternity.

Mr. Gillis worked for the Bay Construction Co. of Tampa and worked on the construction of the Tampa Bay Gandy Bridge. He later worked as county engineer in Okaloosa County.

From 1929 until his retirement in 1954, he also worked with the Public Service Electric and Gas Co. of New Jersey, planning, constructing and maintaining high-voltage steel, transmission towers.

After retirement, Mr. Gillis returned to Gainesville. He was a member of the UF Athenaeum Club, Gainesville Kiwanis Club and Gainesville Lodge No. 41. He also was a member of First Presbyterian Church in Gainesville, where he served as a permanent elder.

Mr. Gillis was born on a farm in Knox Hill in Walton County in 1895. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War I.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Lucie Wood Gillis.

Survivors include two daughters, Eleanor Dice of Wooster, Ohio, and Margaret Butner of Gainesville; a sister, Clarice Hart of Perry; two brothers, Edwin Gillis and Harold Gillis, both of DeFuniak Springs; five grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Expressions of sympathy may be made as donations to the Boy Scouts of America or to the charity of the giver's choice.