As the nation celebrated Labor Day on Monday, Sept. 7, Wrightsville Beach’s Don Gilstrap slipped away to be with his Lord after a brief stay at hospice.
Gilstrap died with family at his side, at 90 years old after leading a long and extremely successful life.
He served with distinction in World War II. On June 7th, 1944, Gilstrap received a letter from his mother, which said, “Thank goodness you’re not in the European Theater.” Gilstrap wasn’t in Europe; he was involved in combat in the Pacific Theater in the Allied approach to the Philippines.
His division, the 41st Infantry Division, became the first American troops sent overseas after Pearl Harbor, the first Americans trained in jungle warfare and intensive combat-type training, and the first to deploy to the South Pacific. They spent 45 months overseas, earning the title of “Jungleers” and wearing the rising sun as their shoulder insignia patch.
The 41st became the first Americans to meet the Imperial Japanese Forces in an offensive operation in the jungles of New Guinea, which were described as one of the most merciless places on earth. The Division fought for 72 continuous days in combat against the Japanese at Salamaua, New Guinea. Following that campaign, the 41st then made another thrust to the north and the islands of Holland, Aitape, Wakde, and Biak fell.
Biak Island lies about 900 miles southeast of the Philippines and north of New Guinea. The battle for the coral island was “the toughest battle we had,” Gilstrap said in interviews in May 2002 and May 2003. The Japanese had made a determined effort to reinforce and defend Biak, fighting desperately to retain the territory. Eight thousand Japanese were killed. The 41st started out with 24 men and ended up with just eight. “That was all that was left in our outfit,” Gilstrap said.
Gilstrap was wounded during an amphibious landing on a Biak beach, taking shrapnel through his arm above the elbow. The intense fighting kept him pinned down for two days before being taken first to a field hospital, then a hospital ship.
He excelled at selling cars at his brother-in-law’s Asheville Volkswagen dealership, becoming so successful he was offered his own dealership in High Point during the original Beetle boom of 1964-1977.
Gilstrap’s success in the car business allowed him to begin buying and building office complexes and office buildings. He began working in construction as an engineer. He first came to Wrightsville in 1964. Not long after this he put a contract on a corner unit at the yet-to-be built Seapath Towers, with, as the legendary story goes, a $1 deposit.
He served as the president of the Seapath Homeowners Association for approximately eight years, as well as Seapath Yacht Club, working with George Bond for 13 years. As a local builder/developer he built and sold the boat-a-minimums at Seapath, condos at One South Lumina and A Summer Place, 108 units at Dune Ridge, 60 units on the sound at Cordgrass Bay and 33 single-family lots at Shell Island. Along the way, he bought the corner lot on the Causeway, building first the boat shed with its distinctive sun deck area for his 53-foot Hatteras cockpit motor yacht. The house would follow, as would his beloved Hatteras 72 floating comfortably at his back door.
A framed photo of Gilstrap following breakfast and a round of golf in Kennebunkport, Maine, with former President George Bush hung in the salon of his yacht. One with President George W. Bush hung behind his desk in his home office.
Interviewed in May 2003 for Wrightsville Beach Magazine, Gilstrap answered 20 questions.
Have you had a moment of reckoning?
“I’m in one right now, a little bit. [Billie Gilstrap had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.]Billie’s a wonderful person. We’ve been married 57 years and I’d marry her tomorrow all over again, if she’d have me.”
“God’s been good to me, I am doing fine. I believe prayer does a lot. I got shot in New Guinea in WWII, almost died with malaria, had two bouts with cancer, a stroke, and almost killed myself when I backed into a glass table, but He’s got something for me to do. I wish I could figure out what it is.”
Little known fact?
“So many people have friends because of social status, or what have you. I don’t. Some of my best friends are carpenters and painters, and I love them. I don’t care what they’ve got.”
What is it you most dislike?
“Opinionated people who think they are better than somebody else. I can’t stand that.”
Quality you most respect in others?
“Honesty.”
If you could have had any job in the world, what would it have been?
“Just what I did,” he said as he described his career as a real estate developer in High Point who got his start in cars. “I love to create. I can’t sing, can’t carry a tune, don’t know how to read music, but I can look at a piece of property, land, and see it in 3D.”
Greatest achievement?
“It’s not an achievement; it’s just a reality. Billie and I have been blessed that we lived long enough that we could see our children grown and doing well. We have two wonderful children, Donna and Doug.”
What is your most treasured possession?
“If it were not a person, but a possession, it would be my boat.”
What talent would most like to have that you don’t?
“I’d like to play a musical instrument. I just bought me a guitar. … I am going to learn if it kills me.”
What song do you sing in the shower?
“An old country western, ‘To Get to You.’ It goes ‘all my friends … ’.”
What is your No. 1 regret?
“I didn’t spend enough quality time with my family. When I was coming up, scratching out a living, going to school, I had about three or four jobs, trying to make a living. I didn’t have enough time with my kids. I went for the things to give my family, but I didn’t give them a lot of myself. I give Billie the credit for molding them when they were coming along.”
Words of wisdom?
“We get so busy doing our jobs, and the social thing, and we just don’t spend enough quality time with the family. I try to do that now. You can’t go back and recoup what you didn’t do. That’s the bad side. The older you get you think about the things you should have done. You can’t go back and do it over again. But, if God gives you more time, you can rectify it some.”
The family was still discussing arrangements on Wednesday, son Doug said by text. “We will be having a celebration of life both here and in High Point in the near future. We are currently collecting stories and pictures for use on Dad’s Facebook page.”
