Under his own name, he wrote multiple additional books, such as Time Out for Happiness and Ancestors of the Dozen, and a long-running newspaper column.

During World War II, he served as a naval officer in the South Pacific, participated in three invasions in the Admiralty Islands and the Philippines, and was decorated with two air medals and a bronze star.

In 1947, he relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, where he returned to The Post and Courier (the city's main daily newspaper), as an editorial writer and columnist;[3] under the nom de plume of Ashley Cooper, he wrote a long-running column, Doing the Charleston,[3] which ran until 1993.

On his own, he also wrote about fatherhood in the post-World War II "baby boom", and about family members.

[3] Gilbreth died in 2001, aged 89, in Charleston, South Carolina, where he had lived for the preceding half century.