A reception was held May 15 to unveil the Occo and Mary Gibbs Mineral Collection, which was donated to Elon recently by local businessman Paul Huey. Details...
A large collection of rocks and minerals, gathered by a Burlington couple from 1949-1989, has been donated to Elon University by the owner of a local catering company.
Paul Huey, owner of Huey’s Catering, donated the Occo and Mary Gibbs Mineral Collection to the university for display in the McMichael science building. Mary Gibbs and Huey were present at the reception.
Occo Gibbs took up rock collecting in his spare time after his service as a Navy combat pilot in World War II. He collected a wide variety of rocks and minerals from 20 states and 5 countries, including large and small geodes and fossilized remains.
Occo Gibbs, who retired after 29 years of service with Western Electric Co., in Burlington, sold the collection to Huey’s restaurant, M.C. and Friends, for display in 1989. When the restaurant closed due to highway construction, Huey donated the collection to Elon.
Huey said he originally went to the Gibbs residence in 1989 in search of milk bottles to display in his restaurant. “I heard Occo had the best collection of milk bottles anywhere,” Huey said, but he was soon attracted to Gibbs’ rock collection. Gibbs had agreed to sell the collection in separate parts to a local collector, but decided to sell it to Huey when Huey assured him that he would keep the collection together.
Mary Gibbs said that she and her husband have both had a lifelong interest in rock collecting. Many of their vacations were planned around rock and mineral collecting expeditions, she said.