Amtrak Victim Bob Gildersleeve Jr. , Former Resident of Holmdel and Middletown

510
A photo of Bob Gildersleeve, from the YouCaring page set up in his honor to raise money for a  scholarship to the Culinary Institute Of America, where he attended 1988-1990.
A photo of Bob Gildersleeve, from the YouCaring page set up in his honor to raise money for a scholarship to the Culinary Institute Of America, where he attended 1988-1990.

Robert J. Gildersleeve Jr., 45, of Elkridge, Maryland,  a former resident of Holmdel and graduate of Middletown High School South, was the eighth and final victim to be pulled from the fatal Amtrak train disaster on Tuesday.
Visitation will be held today, Sunday, May 17 at the John E. Day Funeral Home of Red Bank.
Gildersleeve attended the Culinary Institute of America and Florida International University. He was the Institutional V.P. of Corporate Accounts North America at Ecolab for 22 years headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota.
He is survived by his wife Danna, his daughter and son, Ryan and Marc, his parents Robert Sr. and Aileen, and siblings Charles and his wife Lisa; Doreen DeMarco and her husband Eugene; James and his wife Catherine; brothers and sisters-in-law, Barri Leiner Grant and her husband Alex; Jeremy Leiner and his husband Jed Resnick; and Matthew Leiner and his wife Claudia.
He is the son-in-law of Neil Leiner. Also surviving are his nieces and nephews, Charles, Danielle, Megan, Emma, Matthew, Nicolette, Jillian, James, Quinn and Katelyn.
Visitation services Sunday, May 17 will be held from 11 am – 2 pm and 5 -8 pm at the John E. Day Funeral Home, 85 Riverside Ave. in Red Bank.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Monday, May 18th, at noon at The Church of St. Catharine, 108 Middletown Road in Holmdel. Cremation will be private.
Danna Leiner Gildersleeve released a statement, calling her husband of 18 years her best friend. “Our hearts are broken and we can’t imagine a life without him. We will miss him with all our heart,” she said.
In lieu of flowers, the family is  requesting that donations in Bob’s memory be offered to The Bob Gildersleeve Memorial Scholarship c/o The Culinary Institute of America. The link to the You Caring page, which had attracted $30,000 in donations from 180 people by Sunday at noon, is at www.youcaring.com/bobgildersleeve.

The page says, “In his loving memory, family and friends wish to continue to foster his love of cooking and the culinary arts by creating a scholarship awarded to a high school senior who plans to attend CIA.”