| Hutton Gibson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name: | Hutton Peter Gibson |
| Born: | August 26, 1918 |
| Birth Hometown: | Peekskill, New York |
| Died: | May 11, 2020 (aged 101) |
| Place of death: | Thousand Oaks, California |
| Occupation: | Writer |
Hutton Peter Gibson (August 26, 1918 – May 11, 2020) was an American writer on sedevacantism, a World War II veteran, the 1968 Jeopardy! grand champion and the father of 11 children, one of whom is the actor and director Mel Gibson.
Gibson was an outspoken critic both of the post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church and of those Traditionalist Catholics who reject sedevacantism, such as the Society of Saint Pius X. In a 2003 interview he engaged in Holocaust denial, wondering how the Nazis could have disposed of six million bodies during the Holocaust and claimed that the September 11, 2001 attacks were perpetrated by remote control. He was also quoted as saying that the Second Vatican Council was "a Masonic plot backed by the Jews."
Early life and family[]
Gibson was born in Peekskill, New York, the son of businessman John Hutton Gibson (1884–1933) and Australian opera singer Eva Mylott (1875–1920). His maternal grandparents were Irish emigrants to Australia, while his father, who was from a wealthy tobacco-producing family from the American South, had Irish, English, Scottish, and Welsh ancestry. He was raised in Chicago. His mother died when he was two years old and his father died when he was fifteen. Gibson supported his younger brother, Alexis, who died in his early twenties. He graduated from high school early, at age 15, and ranked third in his class.
According to Wensley Clarkson's biography of Mel Gibson, Hutton Gibson studied for the priesthood in a Chicago seminary which was operated by the Society of the Divine Word but he left the seminary because he considered the modernist theological doctrines which were being taught there disgusting. However, in 2003, Gibson stated that he really left the seminary because he did not want to be sent to New Guinea or the Philippines as a missionary. Instead, he found work with Western Union and the Civilian Conservation Corps. He also contributed to and edited the newsletter "The Pointer" while he worked in Wisconsin for the CCC from 1938–39.
After serving with the United States Marine Corps at the Battle of Guadalcanal, Gibson married Irish-born Anne Patricia Reilly on May 1, 1944, at the Catholic parish church of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Brooklyn, New York. They had ten children and adopted another one after their arrival in Australia. As of 2003, Gibson had 48 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. His wife died in December 1990. In January 2002, he married Teddy Joye Hicks, but in 2012 Gibson filed for divorce due to irreconcilable differences. From early 2006, he resided in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh after moving from Australia to Houston, Texas, in 1999, and to Summersville, West Virginia, in 2003.
Quiz show contestant[]
In 1968, Gibson appeared on the Art Fleming-hosted version of the game show Jeopardy! as "Red Gibson, a railroad brakeman from South Ozone Park, New York". Gibson won $4,680 and retired undefeated after five shows, in accordance with the rules of the show then in force. He was invited back to appear in the 1968 Tournament of Champions, where he became the year's grand champion, winning slightly over one thousand dollars more, as well as a two-person cruise to the West Indies. Art Fleming observed on the October 18, 1968, episode that the Jeopardy! staff had had difficulty informing Gibson about his invitation as Gibson had decamped with his family to County Tipperary, Ireland.
Gibson later participated in many Australian quiz shows, including Big Nine with Athol Guy and Ford Superquiz with Bert Newton. In 1986, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Gibson had recently won $100,000 and an automobile in a TV quiz program.
Death[]
Gibson died on May 11, 2020 of natural causes at Thousand Oaks, California at the age of 101.