Mr. Isaac Gilchrist

The Life and Legacy Of ISAAC GILCHRIST January 29, 1922 – January 9, 2021 Mr. Isaac Gilchrist, affectionately known to his friends and family members as “Man”, was born on January 29, 1922 to the union of Deacon Peter Gilchrist and Isabelle Chappell-Gilchrist in Lowndes County, near the city of Hayneville, Alabama.His wife, Doris, two children, Glenn Irving and Deborah Michelle, and several of his siblings preceded him in death. Isaac was born the second of eleven children just a couple of weeks after his big sister Mary Elizabeth’s first birthday. He was a happy child who embraced his responsibilities as “big brother” to four younger brothers and five sisters: George, Mary Golden ‘Honey’, Julia ‘Bay’, Fred, Brister, Georgianna, John Frank, Octavia “Baby Sister”, and Earnestine ‘Mutt’. Isaac confessed Christ at an early age. He was baptized under the leadership of the late Elder J. H. Betts at Original Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church, in Lowndes County, Alabama. He was educated through the sixth grade in Lowndes County, at the Span Community School. At 18, Isaac left home and joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (aka the CC Camp), where he worked on projects in northern Alabma and Tennessee. At age 20, he was drafted into the US Army Air Corps on October 3, 1942 and served through the duration of World War II. After the war was over, Isaac was more than ready to do something other than farming. He was more than willing when in 1946, Cousin Nelson “Jack” Edwards, a prominent Detroit union leader, encouraged Isaac to come to Detroit. Having arrived in Detroit much earlier, Jack had risen to become an officer in the UAW where he was positioned to secure jobs for African Americans in Detroit’s bustling automobile factories. Isaac started working at Chrysler’s Dodge Main assembly plant and began establishing his new life in Detroit. He survived a bout with tuberculosis that hospitalized him for more than a year. While hospitalized, Isaac met patient Doris Mae Williams who happened to live only six blocks away from him. After a long courtship, they were married on November 22, 1952. For the next 65 years he was a devoted husband until Doris’s death. in 2017. Isaac and Doris bought a two-family flat on 35th Street in Detroit where they raised five-children: Deborah, Gary, Garold, Garlin and Glenn. Isaac and Doris complemented each other perfectly in almost everything. He was instrumental in going door-to-door to start a four-street block club in the early 1970’s. The 35th Street Block Club went on to join a larger neighborhood association called Michigan Avenue Community Organization (MACO). He was a reliable member of the Western High School PTA and when Doris opted to be a Cub Scout Den-Mother, Isaac became a Den- Dad. He was a proud UAW union member, as well as a member of the Trade Union Leadership Council, an organization that looked after the needs and concerns of African American workers in light of the racism that existed in the auto industry and the unions. Not only was he a fantastic father, as the “Man” of the Gilchrist Family, he reached back home to Alabama and hosted his brothers Brister and Fred who lived with he and Doris until they found jobs with Ford and Chrysler and established themselves in Detroit. Isaac was a long-time member of the New Light Baptist Church in Detroit before he joined Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church where Doris was already a member. He served on the Usher Board for many years until his health prevented him from doing so. After 35 years of service, Mr. Gilchrist retired from Chrysler Corp. in 1981, but this hard- working man who could fix and do almost everything was far from done! In his second act, Isaac became his own boss as he spent the next 25 years painting homes in his interior decorating business before finally retiring for good. Isaac’s love of family led him to host weekly Friday Night Fish Fry’s which brought together family and friends to fellowship and enjoy his famous catfish and french fries to kick off the weekend. Indeed, he was the “MAN”! In 2016, with Doris in a nursing home, Isaac moved in with his son Garlin & his wife Yvonne in Farmington Hills, where he lived out the remainder of his life in the Gilchrist family home. After a brief illness, Isaac succumbed to a non-COVID-19 related pneumonia and departed this life on January 9, 2021 at Beaumont Hospital, in Farmington Hills, MI. Isaac leaves to cherish his memory his remaining children Gary Lionel, Garold Trevor, and Garlin Dorell (Yvonne); grandchildren Stacie Williams, Garlin Gilchrist II (Ellen), and Diamond Hunter; great grandchildren Skyler Hamilton; Rhiannon, Uriyah, and Theodora Williams; and Garlin III, Emily Grace and Ruby Madeline Gilchrist; siblings Brister Gilchrist, Octavia Martin, and Ernestine Johnson; sisters in-law Alice Gilchrist and Patricia Powell; and a host of nephews, nieces, cousins, and friends. “Don’t weep for me. I’m in a better place now and will see you again.” His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord – Matthew 25:21

Mr. Isaac Gilchrist

January 29, 1922 - January 9, 2021