Weldon Bailey "Hoot" Gibson CBE (April 23, 1917 - May 6, 2001) was an economist and a longtime executive at SRI International (previously the Stanford Research Institute), where he worked full-time from 1947 until 1988, and part-time as Senior Director Emeritus until his death.

[3] Gibson was the son of farmers in Eldorado, Texas who were hit hard by the Great Depression, but still managed to send Gibson to Washington State University (WSU), due in part to assistance from his uncle Arthur "Buck" Bailey, a noted baseball coach at WSU.

[8] Gibson served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, specifically from 1941 to 1946,[1] where he was director of materiel requirements.

[7] He retired from the corps as a colonel and assistant director of the Air Force Institute of Technology in Dayton, Ohio.

[9] He is the namesake for the Gibson Achievement Award, established in 1999, which is for an employee of SRI International that has a significant impact on society's standard of living and prosperity.