Gerard Gillon, shipping executive

Gerard T. Gillon, 73, of Long Beach Island, a former president of Lavino Shipping Agencies in Philadelphia, died of pneumonia Friday, April 8, in Naples (Fla.) Community Hospital.

Mr. Gillon's firm was a division of Lavino Shipping Co., a Philadelphia maritime services firm with offices in 11 East Coast and Great Lakes ports. His division was sold in 1989.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., he graduated from West Islip (N.Y.) High School, where he was a basketball team starter, and earned a bachelor's degree at St. Francis University in Loretto, Pa., in 1964.

Donald Gould knew Mr. Gillon for 60 years, since they were eighth-grade classmates. Their careers ran on parallel paths through several companies, Gould said, in both trucking and maritime work.

From 1966 to 1970, he said, Mr. Gillon was a regional manager in New York City for U.S. Lines, which at that time was an stateside steamship transportation firm.

Mr. Gillon became vice president of sales in North Bergen, N.J., from 1971 to 1974 for the former Red Star Express trucking company.

From 1974 to 1979, Gould said, Mr. Gillon was a regional vice president in Jersey City, N.J., for Werner Continental Inc., another freight trucker.

In 1980, Mr. Gillon and his family moved to Moorestown from Ridgewood, N.J., to join the Lavino firm.

He was president of Lavino Shipping Agencies from 1980 to 1992, remaining after the firm was sold in 1989.

Mr. Gillon then shifted to two firms that dealt with emergency management of oil spills, becoming an owner of Marispond in Philadelphia from 1992 to the early 2000s and a senior executive with Meredith Management Group in Paoli since 2004.

Gould, who retired in 2012 as a marketing and sales executive for Meredith, said Mr. Gillon had chosen to work in trucking and shipping because "they offered managerial challenges, and he enjoyed that."

Mr. Gillon's daughter, Maureen Warren, said "he worked very hard to earn what he did, and he accomplished a lot."

Besides his daughter, Mr. Gillon is survived by sons David and Brian, a brother, a sister, five grandchildren, and his companion, Linda Latiff. He is also survived by his former wife, Ellen Kelly.

A visitation was set from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 17, at Bugbee-Riggs Funeral Home, 12th Street and Boulevard, Ship Bottom, N.J., with a Funeral Mass at 11 a.m. Monday, April 18, at St. Francis of Assisi Church, 400 Long Beach Blvd., Brant Beach, N.J. Interment is to be private.

Donations may be sent to St. Francis University sports programs at francis.edu.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.riggsfuneralhom.com.

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