Leon Aaron Gilbert, Jr. was born in York, Pennsylvania on November 9, 1920, the eldest of two sons of a blacksmith who had also served in World War I. He was educated in local schools and enlisted in the U. S. Army at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on August 16, 1940. He served with the 92d Division in Italy and was honorably discharged in 1946, then called up again as a reservist in 1947. He was thus a decorated veteran with a record of ten years' service in the Army. He and his wife Kay had two children with a third on the way.