Name: Alan Gillespie, Beaver Island entrepreneur and raconteur, dies in Phoenix, 2006
Start: 2006-02-18
End: 2006-02-18
Location: Beaver Island

Event

Date: 2006-02-18
Kind: Death
Eras: Modern era
Concepts: deathcommunitycommercetourismfamilycommunication
Within: Beaver Island

Summary

Alan Clifford Gillespie died in Phoenix on February 18, 2006, at age 75. The March Beaver Beacon obituary describes his varied career and his later Beaver Island ventures, including a retired Post Office Jeep rental business, plans for island-bottled water, and other development ideas. Forum participants remembered him as an unusually imaginative and generous community figure.

Evidence limits

The newspaper obituary establishes the death and core biography. The forum adds personal memories but also contains colorful anecdotes that are not independently verified and should not be treated as established biography.

Sources

Beaver Island Forum topic 533, "Alan Gillespie RIP," February 24–27, 2006.
A contemporaneous community memorial recalls Gillespie's Beaver Island activities and personality, including his Post Office Jeep rental business and island development ideas. Some anecdotes are explicitly personal recollections and are not independently verified here.
forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 00 · t000533
"Alan Gillespie 1930–2006," Beaver Beacon, March 2006.
The obituary reports that Alan Clifford Gillespie died in Phoenix on February 18, 2006, at age 75, and documents his family, varied career, move to Beaver Island, retired Post Office Jeep rental business, bottled-water plans, and other island ventures. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2006-03_Beaver-Beacon
Beaver Beacon, March 2006, held issue PDF, source scan.
The held issue scan confirms the obituary.
data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2006-03_Beaver-Beacon

Added 9 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Alan Gillespie, Beaver Island entrepreneur and raconteur, dies in Phoenix, 2006”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-alan-gillespie-death-2006/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Island Forum topic 533, "Alan Gillespie RIP," February 24–27, 2006. (and 2 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-09. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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