Gary Giel Gore, of Nashville, died March 28. He was 89.
A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, Gore was raised primarily in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. His father was a small-town newspaper editor, and Gore worked in his father’s newspaper print shops growing up. It clearly influenced his career path, as he ultimately ventured into printing, publication and book design after leaving home. His early career moved him to Madison, Wisconsin; Richmond, Virginia; Kingsport, Tennessee; and finally to Nashville in 1965 when he came to work at Vanderbilt University Press. After the press closed a few years later, he found work with the American Association for State and Local History. He returned to Vanderbilt in the early 1980s as university designer and later became director of publications. He retired from Vanderbilt in 1998. Book design had become his love and his passion, and after leaving Vanderbilt, he continued to provide freelance design for numerous publishers around the country until his health finally forced him to fully retire. His final design project, which is still in production, will be a book titled A History of Nashville’s Warner Parks.
Many of his friends and family remember Gore as a great wit and raconteur, a warm, wise fellow who entertained those around him with amusing and hilarious stories—predictably embellished for the benefit of humor, but never at the expense of his friends. He touched many lives deeply and made his office environments amusing and interesting places to work.
He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Kathryn Nethercutt Gore, his son, Bruce Gore, his daughter Kymberly Alsup, stepson Mike Dixon and numerous nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
—Adapted from The Tennessean