Robert E. Gilka

Robert E. Gilka (July 12, 1916 – June 25, 2013) was an American photojournalist best known for being an editor and director of photography at National Geographic for 27 years (1958–1985).

Biography

Robert Gilka was born in 1916 near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Gilka graduated from Marquette University in 1939 with a degree in journalism. Upon graduation, he published a four-page tabloid sized job description called "The Gilka Graphic", a chronicle of his experience and qualifications, which he sent to several hundred editors around the country. The job market was still at a depression low and he was hired by the Zanesville, Ohio Signal newspaper as a general reporter, sports editor, and photographer. At the Signal, he met and married Janet Andrews Bailey, a reporter at the Zanesville Signal in 1941. Gilka died at the age of 96 in an Arlington, Virginia hospice on June 25, 2013, after his third bout of pneumonia that year.

Gilka's Gorillas Words of encouragement from Bob Gilka were responsible for the development of dozens of photographers. During his years at National Geographic, they became known as "Gilka’s Gorillas"—probably a result of Jane Goodall, naming one of her research chimps (Gilka) after him. At the Geographic he was a staunch supporter of photographers while they traveled throughout the world. He was often willing to defend expense account items such as "Cessna 185 aircraft" (the whole plane—not a rental) or obscure items such as "Mouse for rattlesnake, house for mouse, cheese for mouse."

While at the Geographic, magazine circulation rose from less than 2 million to over 10 million.

He retired from National Geographic in 1985 and served as an adjunct professor of photojournalism at Syracuse University until 1992.