Gibbs then attended the University of Minnesota, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education.

After retiring from IBM, Gibbs founded an employment agency, Technical Career Placement, Inc., which he continued to operate until 1999.

In 1966, Gibbs helped organize the Rochester Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

[5] After brief work in the Civilian Conservation Corps,[5] Gibbs enlisted in the U.S. Navy from Macon, Georgia in 1935.

[2] The U.S. Congress established the service to support Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd's third polar expedition (1939–1941) intended "to consolidate previous American exploration and to examine more closely the land in the Pacific sector.

[2][8][9] Gibbs served as a Mess Attendant 1st Class aboard the lead expedition ship, U.S.S.

Bear but praised the captain and the spirit of co-operation among most of the Navy and civilian members of the expedition.

Gibbs wrote in his journal: I was the first man aboard the ship to set foot in Little America and help tie her lines deep into the snow.

[4] The captain of the Bear, Lieutenant Commander Richard H. Cruzen, commended Gibbs twice: first, "at meritorious mast for his zeal, initiative, and untiring industry, entailing much personal sacrifice," during the preparation period for the Antarctic duty and second, at the end of the expedition, "for his outstanding zeal and energy, and for the unusual spirit of loyalty and cooperation which he has invariably displayed under trying conditions encountered during the assignment of this vessel to duty with the U.S. Antarctic Service.

[2] After Gibbs retired from the Navy, he moved to Minneapolis, graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1963 with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Education.

[1][3][4] Gibbs became a civil rights leader and helped organize the Rochester, Minnesota Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

[5] Gibbs's daughter, who plans to publish a book about her father, has said that he was very persuasive, noting that only about 50 of the 350 members of the local NAACP chapter were black.

[5] Gibbs was a chairman of Boy Scout Troop 21 and the United Negro College Fund for southeast Minnesota.

[2] Rochester Minnesota's West Soldiers Field Drive was renamed in honor of Gibbs in 2002.