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Henry Clark Gilbert was born December 1, 1891 in White Bear Lake, Minnesota – a community just north of St. Paul – to Philip G. Gilbert and Alcetta Tinkham Gilbert. Gilbert matriculated at Oregon Agricultural College (OAC) in 1912 with a major in Agriculture. While at OAC, Gilbert served in Company L of the OAC Cadet Corps and was a member of the Rifle Club, a recognized student chapter of the National Rifle Association. He was also a member of the Shakopean Society, and served as the Managerial Staff member in charge of subscriptions for the Oregon Countryman, a scientific magazine issued by the Agricultural and Home Economics students at OAC. He was a member-resident of the Oxford Club, which was formally organized as the Oregon Alpha chapter of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity in February 1918. By his senior year, Gilbert had been promoted to Captain of Company C in the OAC Cadet Corps, and was selected to serve as Secretary of the OAC Rifle Club. He was also one of 38 students from OAC selected to serve as “guides” in the Oregon Building at the Panama-Pacific Exhibition in San Francisco.

Gilbert was active in faith-based students groups during his time at OAC. He was a member of OAC’s student chapter of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), and served as chair of the group’s Religious Meetings Committee, whose activities included bringing speakers to campus, and holding religious meetings, Bible classes, and “uplifting social gatherings.” Gilbert was also a member of YMCA’s Student Volunteer Band, the purpose of which was to develop an “active interest in missions among the students…and [secure] recruits for service in the foreign mission field.”

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture in 1915, Gilbert stayed on at OAC to pursue a Master’s degree in Botany. While pursuing this degree, Gilbert worked as an Instructor in Botany and Plant Pathology, and served as the Faculty Advisor for the Oxford Club. Gilbert graduated in 1917, completing a Master’s thesis entitled Notes on Some of the Weeds of the Willamette Valley.That same year, Gilbert moved to Hilo, Hawaii, where he worked as a teacher of Agriculture and Military Science at the Hilo Boarding School.

From 1918 to 1921, Gilbert worked in South Dakota on the Barberry Eradication campaign out of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Cereal Investigations Office, first as the Assistant State Leader (1918-1919) and then as the State Leader of the project (1919-1920). Sometime prior to 1920, Gilbert married Katherine Mayo Asbahr, herself an OAC graduate in Commerce (Class of 1920). Her brothers Harry (Agriculture, 1910) and Albert Allen (Agriculture, 1911), and sisters Margaret Mary (Domestic Science and Art, 1913) and Estella Marie (Home Economics), also attended OAC.

In 1921, the Gilberts relocated to Minnesota, where both Henry and Katherine began work on advanced degrees at the University of Minnesota (UM). Henry worked as a Botany instructor in the School of Agriculture while pursuing his PhD in Agricultural Botany, with a special focus on “lettuce diseases.” By November 1924, the Gilberts had returned to Oregon, where Gilbert took up farming near Salem, Oregon. The Gilberts had moved south to Liberty, Oregon by 1930; Henry continued his agricultural pursuits as an orchardist, while Katherine taught public school. In September 1931, Henry left for Iowa City, Iowa to teach Botany at the Iowa State University (ISU); Katherine joined him there in 1932. Henry completed his PhD in Plant Pathology in 1933 while teaching at ISU.

The Gilberts returned to Oregon in late 1942, settling in the Hillsboro area. Henry Clark Gilbert died March 30, 1981 in Hillsboro, Oregon. Upon his death, Gilbert’s botanical specimens were donated to the Oregon State University Herbarium; as of January 2021, they are still there.