In an age of corporations, stockholders and mergers, Gilbert & Sons Trucking of Tecumseh shines as a successful family-owned-and-operated business. As operations manager and vice president Randy Gilbert takes his responsibilities to the business and his family seriously.

“Trucking is a 24/7 job,” Gilbert said. “I don’t know what a ‘typical’ day is. Getting our trucks from point A to point B is critical. People who make lists were never in the trucking business.”

The Gilbert family has more than 30 years in the trucking business. The family moved to Tecumseh in July 1971, after Richard “Pokey” Gilbert bought a semi truck and a house with 10 acres in the same day. Soon after the move, Ann Gilbert took her three sons to enroll in Tecumseh Public Schools and met an individual who helped add agriculture to the family’s interests.

 “We met up with Raymond Cockrum, and he talked my mom into putting my older brother Rick in ag,” Gilbert said.

Cockrum was beginning his first year as Tecumseh High School’s vocational agriculture teacher. He also helped Randy and his younger brother, Ron, get started in 4-H and with their livestock projects.

            “My favorite memory of Randy is of him showin’ steers,” Cockrum said. “He’d buy them from his uncle in eastern Oklahoma, and when we’d bring them home they’d be so wild we’d have to tie them up for a month!”

Cockrum worked closely with the Gilberts for the three years while he was with Tecumseh Public Schools and said Pokey and Ann Gilbert were the program’s strongest supporters while he was there.

“Mr. Cockrum’s influence was tremendous,” Randy Gilbert said. “In high school, he told me ‘you can always be pleased, but never be satisfied.’ I still stay in contact with him.”

Cockrum was teaching in Guthrie by the time Randy Gilbert could join FFA. Gilbert’s vocational agriculture teachers included Larry Smith, Odell Binam, Danny Wells and Rick Shelby. In FFA, Gilbert continued his livestock projects, including Hampshire sheep and crossbred cattle.

“For most people, the attraction is livestock, but when you get into the program, there is so much more,” he said. “You did all you could. You couldn’t get enough of it.”

As an FFA member, Randy Gilbert overcame his shyness and a speech impediment to give extemporaneous speeches, compete on the parliamentary procedure team and the agricultural economics team, and serve four teams as a chapter officer, including chapter president in 1977-78.

“You learned how to work and to have responsibilities,” Gilbert said. “The harder you work, the luckier you are.”

Gilbert attended Oklahoma FFA Alumni Camp in the 1970s when it was held near Guthrie and then near Red Rock.

“Guys you met there you still see now and you know where they are in life,” he said.

Gilbert earned the State Farmer Degree when the Oklahoma FFA Convention was still held in Oklahoma State University’s Gallagher Arena.

“To go to OSU was something,” Gilbert said. “After that, you knew where you were going to college.”

Gilbert started at OSU in August 1978. He said when he went to his first class – introduction to animal science with Bob Noble – “there were more kids in that class than in my graduating class of 128.”

“After the shock, you looked around and realized you knew at least a third of the people from FFA,” he said. “It made OSU a much smaller place.”

Gilbert started college with plans to become a veterinarian, he said, until he discovered he “wasn’t as good at science” as he needed to be. For him, the next most logical choice was to teach agriculture.

“Because of my speech impediment, my parents were shocked when I said wanted to be an ag teacher,” Gilbert said. “But they supported me and said ‘that’ll be good.’”

When Gilbert graduated from OSU in 1983, he took an agricultural teaching position as part of a five-teacher program in Lawton. Cockrum was his district supervisor.

“When I started teaching, Mr. Cockrum told me I would have to work hard to be successful,” Gilbert said.

And he did work hard. In addition to being in the classroom, he coached some judging teams and took students to the National FFA Convention. He made sure every student completed his or her record book properly.

“Randy Gilbert was a motivator,” Cockrum said. “He was always working to do the best and get his kids to achieve the best.”

The hard work by Gilbert and his fellow teachers paid off. Although Lawton FFA had not been a Gold Emblem Chapter since the 1940s, the chapter attained that recognition in Gilbert’s first year. The chapter also had its first American Farmer Degree in 50 years. Gilbert said teaching was great and he enjoyed the students; however, his life was about to change drastically.

In 1982, while Gilbert was at OSU, his parents officially started Gilbert & Sons Trucking in the family’s shop, and he worked part-time as a mechanic. His brothers were drivers; his mother served as dispatcher. In early 1988, his parents decided they “needed to do more or do less” and purchased property to enlarge the family business. They asked their middle son to come home, and he did.

“You take care of family,” Gilbert said.

Today, in addition to being husband to Suzanne, father to Annie Jo and stepfather to Dustie, Gilbert makes sales calls, delivers presentations and ensures the company’s financial obligations are met. He’s become an active member of the Tecumseh and Shawnee chambers of commerce, serves on the Oklahoma FFA Foundation board of directors and serves as a governor-appointed member of the State Board of Career and Technology Education.

“We try to maintain Gilbert & Sons Trucking as a family business,” he said. “We try to be involved in our community because it’s important to give back.”

One way Gilbert supports the community is through the Oklahoma FFA Foundation as a One Star Partner. He and his family have provided financial support for local and state FFA activities for 18 years, having started with the State FFA Sweetheart Pageant at Oklahoma State Fair. Now, they sponsor the Oklahoma FFA Convention Award Winners Luncheon and the Oklahoma FFA Foundation Luncheon. Kendall Brashears, Oklahoma FFA Foundation executive director, said he appreciates long-term sponsors.

“Sponsors like Randy Gilbert provide a solid base for the Oklahoma FFA Foundation to operate year after year,” said Brashears. “They help us guarantee the future of FFA chapters.”

In addition to its reputation for community involvement, Gilbert & Sons Trucking has grown its business, which now includes a new warehouse, 45 trucks, 200 trailers and about 50 employees. In 1995 and 2005, it was named Tecumseh Business of the Year.

“The key is to hire good people who are dedicated and give 100 percent,” Randy Gilbert said. “We have longevity in our employees.”

Like most former FFA members, businessman Randy Gilbert remains passionate about “the blue and gold.” He credits agricultural education and FFA for his successes.

“Work ethic, responsibility, integrity, speaking and presentation skills are all skills I learned in FFA and use every day,” Gilbert said. “We give some of our time and resources back to FFA because it was good to me and to my brothers.”

Cockrum said Gilbert’s success is due, in part, to his honesty.

“He’s one of those people who will grow at the rate he wants to grow,” Cockrum said. “I believe in him so much. The world needs more Randy Gilberts.”