COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. (WCAX) – A well-known Vermont geologist and trail advocate was killed in a wrong-way crash in Florida on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
Arthur Gilbert, 96, of Dorset, died when a wrong-way driver slammed head-on into his car on Interstate 75 in Collier County, Florida.<\/p>\n
Police say 24-year-old Genise Taylor was going north in the southbound lanes. Not long after, she slammed head-on into two cars, killing Gilbert.<\/p>\n
Gilbert and his wife Pamela winter in Florida. He had just dropped her off at the airport. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe would have been 97 April 9th,\u201d Pamela said.<\/p>\n
Gilbert was a well-known geologist in Vermont, working with the state, the University of Vermont, and national oil companies. But he was especially known for his community work in Dorset. He has deep roots there and helped preserve a hiking network. A lookout is named after his family, and a bench there honors Gilbert\u2019s trail advocacy work.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a long history of leading hikes to abandoned quarries on Dorset Mountain,\u201d said Jon Matthewson with the Dorset Historical Society.<\/p>\n
Matthewson joined Gilbert on those hikes for about 12 years. Both were on the Dorset Historical Society. Gilbert shared geological facts with fellow hikers while Matthewson shared the area\u2019s history. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to be a great loss. His knowledge and enthusiasm are just so memorable,\u201d Matthewson said. \u201cAnd in many ways, he will always be up in those trails, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilbert\u2019s wife says she doesn\u2019t want him remembered for the tragic end to his life but for what he gave to Vermont and his neighbors. \u201cHe\u2019s just so well respected from every field, every person who has ever known him,\u201d Pamela said. \u201cHe\u2019ll be sorely missed, sorely missed by everybody. He was a fabulous, wonderful human being.\u201d <\/p>\n
Police say the wrong-way driver was drunk. Her blood alcohol content was nearly three times the legal limit. She\u2019s charged with DUI manslaughter.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WCAX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. (WCAX) – A well-known Vermont geologist and trail advocate was killed in a wrong-way crash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[91923,1776,28,30,29,35084,91924,91925],"class_list":["post-198502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-arthur-gilbert","tag-crash","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-vermont","tag-wcax","tag-wrong-way"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}