In Memory
Gilbert Anthony Cipriano
Jul 11, 1929 - May 14, 2026
Gilbert Anthony Cipriano, of South Bend, Indiana, passed away peacefully at home on the evening of May 14, 2026 surrounded by his family who loved him, ending a life that had been lived in the service of others.
Gilbert was born on July 11, 1929 in Providence, Rhode Island to Henry and Marie Cipriano. His parents and brother Richard preceded him in death. Gilbert is survived by his sister Rose Marie (Joubert), his brother Antonio Cipriano, his sister Henrietta Cipriano, his wife Kay (Palmiter), his children David (Debra Garrison), Douglas (Heidi Cuesta), Toni (James Steffens), Neil, and Dulene, and his grandchildren: Zachary Simms, Gabriela Cipriano, Peter Cipriano, and Joseph Cipriano.
Gilbert Anthony grew up in Providence, Rhode Island as a first-generation Italian American, raised in one of the oldest Italian immigrant enclaves in the United Stated, Federal Hill. His family immigrated from the region of Campagna. He shared a story of how when growing up, he thought that the whole world was inhabited by Italians. Only when he attended school at the age of 5 did he find out that there were also Portuguese and Irish. He spent time playing sports with his younger brother Richard, playing records with his younger sister Rose, going to Yankees games and movies with his father and brother, collecting first edition Superman comics, and spending summer weekends with his cousins on Narragansett Bay. After graduating from his beloved LaSalle Academy where he excelled at academics, student journalism, track and field, he attended Boston College for a year, then Providence College.
In 1951, he joined the U.S. Air Force, where he served until 1955, stationed in Stillwater, OK, and Montgomery, AL, including spending a year at Wheeler AFB in Tripoli, Libya. Following his honorable discharge in 1955, he served in the Air Force Reserves until 1959. He remained proud of his service throughout his life and was able to take an Honor Flight to Washington, DC in September of 2025.
Gilbert’s original love was for coaching which followed him throughout his lifetime. He started in college coaching local boys’ clubs in basketball, baseball and football. He also coached baseball at the Airforce bases where he was stationed. Later, he coached his kids in their pursuits and served as a referee for men’s and women’s high school swim programs across Northern Indiana. His other loves were journalism and American and European History. He eventually chose to pursue a career in teaching, embarking on a path that would touch many souls throughout his time in the South Bend Community School Corporation.
While he attended several different universities for his undergraduate degree, for his master’s degree in education and history, Gilbert studied at the University of Notre Dame. This is when he met his future wife of 65 years, Kay Palmiter, at The Family and Children’s Center of South Bend. They got married in 1961 after 20 months of dating and settled in the South Bend area for the remainder of their life. While he visited his relatives out in Rhode Island, he considered South Bend his home and always expressed a desire to live out his days there.
He began his career in teaching in the small Lydick school, where he began his education in the rigors of the teaching discipline. In the early 1960s, he took a position at the recently opened LaSalle High School, where he taught History until 1989, when he retired. He approached his teaching responsibilities with sincere dedication, often doing preparation and grading in the evenings and through the weekends. He would stay after school and mentor students who needed advice. The effects of his dedication were clearly seen for years, as many times we would run into people who, upon hearing our last name, would say, “Are you related to a Gil Cipriano?” and then talk about how much they loved his teaching; even 40 to 50 years after having him as a teacher, students would remember him, even getting in touch with him. His students’ memories of him were the legacy of his love of teaching.
For his children, his dedication to his career was also a legacy. We learned to see our career path as a vocation to help others, rather than just a way to earn money for ourselves. We found a way to make our work our passion, in one way or another, giving 110% to whatever we did, because that is what our father instilled in us.
Gilbert finally got to fulfill his desire to be a journalist when he worked for The South Bend Tribune for a while during the 1990’s, covering New Carlisle town meetings and local news.
Also, outside of teaching and family, Gilbert’s personal connection to neighbors and people in the community were important to him. He knew how to strike up conversations with people and always left a positive impression on anyone he met.
He also supported his children in their ventures into the arts, attending every swim meet and every orchestra concert, even up until recently.
On a personal level, Gilbert loved gardening, Italian food, cookouts, Notre Dame football, and going grocery shopping and working out with his son Neil, mentoring and supporting his grandkids in their pursuits, and taking trips to Chicagoland to hang out with his other children.
But most important to Gilbert was his faith. He was a devoted Catholic who almost never missed a weekly service throughout the years. In recent years, he joined a weekly Bible study group, which he assiduously prepared for.
He will be missed.
A wake and funeral services will be held at Palmer Funeral Homes - Welsheimer North Chapel at 17033 Cleveland Road, South Bend on Tuesday, May 26th from 4-7:30pm and a viewing and Mass will be held at Christ the King at 10:00am and 11:00am, respectively on May 27th. Procession and burial to follow at Highland Cemetery. Online Condolences may be left for the family at www.palmerfuneralhomes.com
05/19/2026 EJS
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