Milford icon and award-winning duck carver passes away at 102

Douglas Abraham Gibson, educator, duck carver and Milford icon, passed away on September 18, 2025, at the age of 102. Gibson’s life left a lasting legacy on the town.

Born February 28, 1923, in Trappe, Maryland, Gibson was the ninth of ten children. His father skippered a commercial schooner before becoming a sharecropper. Growing up on a farm, Gibson made the decision early in life that farming was not the life he wanted and was determined to own a home of his own. He graduated from eighth grade in Trappe and, for his ninth-grade year, walked to Easton to attend high school. Today, that walk would take three hours one way to complete. He graduated from high school and briefly attended Princess Anne Academy, now known as the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

At the age of 19, Gibson enlisted in the Navy during World War II, serving for four years at Pearl Harbor where he achieved the rank of Petty Officer Second Class. He took a position at the Tred Avon Yacht Club in Oxford, Maryland, eventually selected to operate the food commission there. He worked in that capacity for more than ten years. He enrolled in Delaware State College and was one of a group of African American students that kept the college from closing. It was there that he met his future wife, Dorothy.

“I used to come to ball games at Del State,” Gibson said in an interview in 2021. “All these pretty girls kept smiling at me and I wanted to know what they were smiling at. I ended up marrying one of those pretty girls and settled in Milford.”

After graduating from Del State, Gibson attended the University of Delaware, one of only four African Americans to attend at the time. The four faced opposition from others who did not want them there, but Gibson remained and earned his master’s degree. During segregation, Gibson was a beloved teacher at Benjamin Banneker, which at the time was a school for African American children. When schools were desegregated, Gibson taught at Milford Junior High School. In 1968, he was recruited to teach at the newly formed Delaware Technical and Community College where he taught Architectural Engineering until he retired in 1988.

Gibson learned architecture while attending the University of Hawaii while in the Navy. He also took a class at Delaware State where, for a class project, he designed a home. The blueprints for that home were used to build the brick house he constructed in Milford in 1960 and 1961. Gibson taught himself how to lay brick and salvaged bricks from a fallen fireplace. He taught his wife how to lay flooring and she installed every floor in their home. He watched his father carve decoys as a child using a hatchet and pocketknife. In the 1970s, he decided to try his hand at the art.

“He found he enjoyed it and it became a passion for him,” his son, Darrald Gibson, said in 2021. “Only his family is aware of the time he spent studying about ducks in books and life specimens. He even acquired a license to raise mallard ducks from the State of Delaware.”

Gibson was the first African American to run for Milford City Council and he did so because he was upset with things that were not being done in the black section of town. Other African Americans in the city were not willing to speak up as the councilperson who represented them was white. In 1963, Gibson registered to run, and his son remembered that carloads of men pulled up in front of their house yelling for his father. Darrald was ushered into another room, but saw his father come up from the basement with a shotgun. Gibson was elected to council that year.

According to Darrald, Gibson let the men have their say and then told them to go back to the man who sent them and tell him to come say what he had to say to Gibson’s face. A meeting with Gibson was called later and he placed $300 on the table, telling his wife she may need it for bail. When he returned, Gibson told his family they would have no more trouble because he made it clear he would not back down.

At the time of the 2021 interview, Gibson’s son stated that his father had seen the passing of his youngest son, his daughter and his wife of 52 years. At the time celebrating his 98^th birthday, Gibson was the oldest surviving member of his family, and his son pointed out that the family was known for longevity as Gibson’s father lived to be 98 and his grandfather 105.

Gibson stated that he remembered riding into town in a horse and buggy because cars were only for the rich. He remembered party lines and music on 45 rpm records. When he was growing up, radio was the primary source of entertainment, and he did not purchase his first television until the 1950s. His son recalled the first time his father brought home a color television and how exciting he thought that was.

For his 98^th birthday, he was asked to do a documentary on his life, and he questioned his son why. Darrald told him it was because he had lived a unique life and done so many different things.

“Huh, I never looked at it that way,” Gibson replied. “I just thought it was another interesting thing I hadn’t done before.”

In 2018, Gibson was awarded the “Unsung Hero Award” by Talbot County Branch of the NAACP. He has been named the Ducks Unlimited Carver of the Year and received an invitation to the Smithsonian Institute’s Arts and Crafts Festival in Washington DC in 2003. AT this event, he demonstrated his methodology as well as his technique which was featured on a German television show. Ten of his decoys have been permanently donated to Del State and, in 2018, they honored him with a reception held for him at the William C. Jason Library.

There will be an Omega Omega Service for Gibson on Tuesday, September 30 from 10:30 to 11 AM at the Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church in Ellendale, located at 18211 Beach Highway, Ellendale. Visitation will be from 11 AM to Noon at the church with services starting at Noon. Services are provided by Bennie Smith Funeral Home and flowers for the service can be ordered by clicking here.