Gillet, Ira E.

Ira Edmond Gillet, Methodist missionary, was born in Fulton County, Ohio, on October 10, 1889. His family moved to Linn County, Oregon, in 1911. Gillet studied at Denver University in Colorado and Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) before receiving his bachelor's degree from Oberlin College in Ohio. He received his seminary degree from Oberlin Graduate School of Theology. Gillet married Edith Clara Riggs at Oberlin on July 6, 1918, and the couple soon thereafter departed for Africa where they served as Methodist missionaries in Mozambique until their retirement and return to Oregon in 1959. Ira taught carpentry and music and Edith taught kindergarten. They served primarily in Kambini and the Limpopo district of Mozambique with one year in Johannesburg, South Africa, where they ministered to the men working in the mines.

In 1915 Gillet was a charter member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, one of many organizations in which he was active during his ministry. Other organizations included the Association for Research and Enlightenment, Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship, the Methodist Federation for Social Action and Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon. Gillet presented radio programs on numerous radio stations in Oregon for twenty years.

Ira and Edith Gillet moved to Rose Villa Retirement Center in Milwaukie, Oregon in 1963, where Ira remained until his death at the age of 100 on December 14, 1989. Edith died in 1974, and Gillet later remarried. His second wife, Ida Mae Gillet, also preceded him in death.

From the description of Ira E. Gillet papers, 1902-1989. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122602978