Robert Gips

Robert Emanuel (Bob) Gips, a retired film producer and director living in Ventura, California, died the evening of Monday, June 16, 2014 after a long illness. Bob Gips was born in Mount Vernon, New York on December 8, 1926, the second child of Jerome Hiram Gips, a jewelry salesman, and Jeanne Weiss Gips, a former secretary and stenographer who was active in many causes for justice and peace.

Bob moved to California at the age of eleven, with his mother and sister Elizabeth, after the death of his father. He attended Louis Pasteur Junior High School and Los Angeles High School. After serving in the US Navy during the latter part of World War II, he attended UCLA, where he was in one of the first graduating classes at the theater arts department’s film school. He met Betty Ann Summers, also of Los Angeles, California, at UCLA in their freshman year, and they married as college seniors in 1951.

Bob and his wife Betty moved to New York City in 1952, where he directed and produced live TV and radio commercials through the National Screen Service. Returning to the Los Angeles area in 1956, shortly before the birth of their eldest child, Judith. Bob worked for ABC TV, then as producer for the ad agencies Doyle Dane Bernbach and Guild, Bascom & Bonfigli. Their second child, Michael, was born in 1959.

As television moved from live broadcast in the mid 1960’s, Bob started directing TV commercials as a member of the Director Guild of America, working for independent film production companies. He began as a director with FilmFair, helping it grow from a small production house, to having offices in Los Angeles, Chicago and London. Later in the 1970s, Bob became a founding partner of Pentangle and continued his directing career with Coast Productions, creating national campaigns for both the US and British markets.

Known as a “people director”, not only working with on screen talent like Jonathan Winters, Farrah Fawcett, Avery Schreiber and giving John Travolta one of his first jobs, his skill extended to directing non actors such as golfer Arnold Palmer, Bob Denver, astronaut Scott Carpenter and a long list of child and animal talent, including the Dreyfus Lion, and an entire circus. He received international recognition for his television commercials including several Clio awards. Starting in early 1970s Bob also shared his talent and skills with a new generation of filmmakers as an instructor of directing and acting at Art Center College of Design.

He retired from active production in 1986, moved to Ventura, CA and devoted himself to community service. Bob was the longtime area coordinator for Amnesty International in Ventura County focusing public attention on their political prisoner and anti-death penalty campaigns.

Bob was a lifelong avid and skilled tennis player up until the age of 80 who preferred singles to doubles. He loved music, especially jazz and classical, and credits a music appreciation class at LA High School for expanding his horizons. While at LA High he was sports and music editor for his high school newspaper. His interest in journalism led him to study filmmaking as a news and information medium.

Bob will be remembered for his quick and often quirky wit, his warmth and hospitality, his deep love for and devotion to his family, and his commitment to helping build a more peaceful and just world around him. Plans for memorial celebrations of his life, in Ventura and Los Angeles, are being made now. Bob’s family (wife Betty, children Judith and Michael, grandchild Lia Gips, and cousins on the East and West Coasts) encourage Bob’s friends and admirers to make donations in honor of his life to Amnesty International or an arts or humanitarian organization of your choice.

Arrangements under the direction of Charles Carroll Funeral Home, Ventura, CA.