Bibb, William Frank, 2008 January 23

This is a Living History interview with Bill Bibb class of 1971, conducted by Marilyn Somers on January 23, 2008 at the Seen Gallery in Decatur, Georgia. The subject is the interviewee’s life, and experiences at Georgia Tech.

Mr. Bibb was born in downtown Atlanta in 1949. Both his parents were originally from Georgia as well. He grew up outside of the city on forty acres of land with one older brother and a pony named Trixie. In South Georgia, his maternal grandparents did not live together but were not divorced. They both had funny eccentric personalities. Mr. Bibb enjoyed going to school as a child, but when his mother died while he was middle school, his family moved and he was transferred to a different school. It was not until high school that Mr. Bibb’s teacher began to notice that he was quite smart. Mrs. Anderson realized he was brighter than many of the other students and saw to it that he was placed in the highest level classes. Mr. Bibb felt a little lost during his high school years, but he enjoyed spending time with his step-brother and traveling with his step-brother’s band. Deciding he wanted to stay in Georgia, Mr. Bibb chose to attend Georgia Tech over Auburn. It took him the first quarter to realize that Tech was not going to be easy. It came as a bit of a shock when he realized he was no longer at the top of the class. Mr. Bibb remembers the presence of both girls and drugs on Georgia Tech’s campus, but very few African Americans. He dated quite a lot, eating at many fun different restaurants around Atlanta. He met his wife, Ann, while in his senior year. Mr. Bibb attended the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr. where he felt there was no animosity between the black and white citizens. In the 1969 draft, when Mr. Bibb’s birthday was the very first one drawn, he decided to enlist to give himself more time to finish his degree. Through a little upper level intervention, Mr. Bibb did not go to Vietnam, but to Maryland to spend three years testing weapons. During this time, he married his sweetheart, Ann. When he got out of the Army he decided to go back to school, where he earned a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering. He did research for a professor at Emory until he got a temporary job with the Center for Disease Control (CDC). After three years, he attained a permanent position and worked his way up through the ranks to Laboratory Chief. Mr. Bibb feels that working with microbiology is a balance between art and science. He worked for many years on food borne diseases such as Ecoli-157 and Salmonella. He felt that only about half the people who come out of college are prepared for real life work. For a while, Mr. Bibb’s wife, Ann, worked at CDC as well, but she eventually decided to go back to medical school. After Mr. Bibb retried from CDC, he began to put all his effort into his art gallery, Seen Gallery. The gallery is located in the Old Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital, which Mr. Bibb helped to fix and transition. He has all kinds of artwork represented and Mr. Bibb’s partner, Amy, originally one of his artists, does quite a lot to manage the gallery. Mr. Bibb’s oldest son, Robert, graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in Chemistry and is attending graduate school for forensic science. Mr. Bibb’s second son, John, is a junior at Georgia Tech and a double major in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Mr. Bibb has truly enjoyed being an active part in both his sons’ lives and loved fatherhood. He feels fortunate to have been able to move through his life with the ability to utilize both sides of his brain, artistically and scientifically.