Early Years
Gibbs was born in Philadelphia to financier William Warren Gibbs and Frances Ayres (Johnson) Gibbs. He graduated from the DeLancey School in 1905. At Harvard University he followed his own curriculum of science and engineering, studying plans of British battleships in his dormitory room, but left without degree. He then attended Columbia Law School from 1911 to 1913, receiving a Bachelor of Law and Master of Arts in economics. At his father's request, he practiced law for the next two years.
In 1915 Gibbs and his brother Frederic Herbert Gibbs began designs for a pair of gigantic 1,000-foot ocean liners, each capable of producing 180,000 horsepower. In 1916 the brothers presented their plans to Admiral David W. Taylor and Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels. The response was encouraging, and the brothers, with the financial backing of J. P. Morgan and the United States Navy, then approached the International Mercantile Marine Company. Although a model was tested in the Experimental Model Basin at the Washington Navy Yard, World War I put an end to these early designs. Gibbs became the company's Chief of Construction in 1919.
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