Gilbert Ellzey “Gil” Carmichael, former Federal Railroad Administrator, and founder of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver, died Jan. 31, 2016 at Anderson Regional Medical Center in Meridian, Miss. He was 88.
Carmichael, a successful automobile dealer and real estate developer, was the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1972 against veteran Democrat James O. Eastland. He ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1975 and 1979 against Democratic nominees Cliff Finch and William Winter. His final race was in 1983 against Democratic Lieutenant Gov. Brad Dye.
U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker said Carmichael was a personal friend for more than 40 years, and noted his valor as a member of the Coast Guard in 1952 helped save 70 men caught in a storm off Cape Cod, Mass. The rescue was featured in the film The Finest Hours. “As a Republican pioneer in Mississippi, Gil took up the GOP standard at a time when many were reluctant to understand the importance of the two-party system,” Wicker said.
From 1989 to 1993, Carmichael headed the Federal Railroad Administration during the George H. W. Bush Administration. In 1991, he founded the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver in Denver, Colo. Thus, in his later years, he became more identified with transportation policy than Republican politics, though he had been active in transportation at the national level since 1973.
In 1973, Carmichael joined the National Highway Safety Advisory Committee and was chairman of the committee from 1974 to 1976. From 1976 to 1979, he was a member of the National Transportation Policy Study Commission. He also chaired the Amtrak Reform Council. In his later years, Carmichael advocated the construction of a railroad to link the ports of Mobile, Alabama and Pascagoula, Miss., north to Lucedale and Waynesboro and then join with the Meridian Southern Railroad line running through Quitman and to Meridian.
“The exceptional measure of Gil Carmichael was his personal effort to cleanse his state’s civil rights stain,” said Railway Age Contributing Editor Frank N. Wilner, a long-time friend of Carmichael. “In 2007, Gil and a business partner purchased 75 acres in the eastern Mississippi town of Stonewall—named for Confederate General Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson—as part of a redevelopment project,” Wilner said. “Included was a covered-over 100-foot-long swimming pool that Carmichael learned had been closed as Mississippi’s long-enforced segregation ended—filled in with truckloads of red clay to prevent children of color from swimming with their Caucasian peers.
“The Meridian Star newspaper quoted Gil, ‘They didn’t want to see blacks in their pool.’ Through Gil’s leadership and substantial personal financial support, the Historic Stonewall Mill Community Swimming Pool reopened to families of all colors that summer nine years ago. Gil said at the time, ‘When the pool closed, it marked the end of an era. Now we are beginning a new era. One in which everyone can enjoy. It’s a symbol of reconciliation.’”
“I still remember the day when the White House announced Gil’s nomination as FRA Administrator, and a bunch of Amtrakers with whom I worked discounted the Volkswagen dealer from Meridian as a political hack that would be a rubber tire advocate,” recalls Jim Michel, Senior Vice President, Global Rail Practice at Marsh USA and a former Amtrak executive. “It did not take Graham Claytor long to understand that Gil was different and recognize that Amtrak’s future for Boston electrification and new Northeast Corridor high speed trainsets rested with the car dealer from Mississippi. Gil wanted to know details and understand technology, not as a railfan but as a railway professional, both freight and passenger.
“Gil expressed a desire to see what the world was doing, and Graham promised to personally take Secretary of Transportation Samuel Skinner and Gil to Europe and Asia to see the new HSR technologies—ICE, TGV, X-2000, Pendolino, Shinkansen, and Talgo. In 1990, I had the honor of joining Graham and Gil on the trip to Sweden and ride the X-2000 and look at the newest ALP-44 for NJ Transit, then in production at ABB in Vasteras. That was the start of long-term friendship that endured all these years.
“Gil and Graham then committed to take the entire Amtrak Board of Directors on a tour of Europe, five countries in eight days, so they would know what they were supporting and buying when Gil got Amtrak the money. I had the responsibility to assemble the itinerary and accompany the group. That led to the demonstration tours of the X-2000 and ICE in America. In 1992, I again had the privilege to break bread with Gil at the first World Congress on High Speed Rail in Brussels, where he preached to all who would listen that America was on the verge of HSR in the Northeast and other corridors.
“In the last days of the Bush Administration [in 1992], Congress appropriated money for the new trainsets and Boston catenary with much cajoling from Gil and Graham. G&G: What a pair, and what a gift to the American dream of better intercity passenger service.
“Gil's vision for high speed rail never slowed down, even though Bill Clinton won the 1992 Presidential election (and Carmichael stepped down as Federal Railroad Administrator). From outside the halls of Washington, Gil stayed active until the very end, promoting railroads and his vision of a 21st century industry. I wonder what would have happened had Gil been able to serve another four years at FRA and drive the implementation of his vision from the locomotive and not watch it evolve from a seat in the observation car.
“Gil will be missed. Perhaps some modern day politician with a love of trains and a willingness to understand the past and how it can enable solutions for the future will step up in the next Administration to fill the void, irrespective of political party.”
The Intermodal Transportation Institute has posted a tribute video to Gil Carmichael. View it by clicking HERE.