Enoch Cook Gilbert's Obituary
On Sunday, June 7, 2026, God called Enoch Cook Gilbert home to eternal rest. He departed life peacefully at Medstar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.
Enoch was born on October 17, 1930 in Hurt, Virginia to the late Enoch H. Gilbert and Victoria (Cook) Gilbert. Enoch was the fourth of eight siblings and eldest male child. Victoria passed away at an early age and Enoch H. married Eliza (Miles), who helped raise the eight children and a nineth child they bore together. The family moved to Washington, D.C. in 1942 where they settled and thrived in the Barry Farm community.
Enoch finished his education in the D.C. Public Schools system, attending Randell Jr. High School and Armstrong Sr. High School. In 1945 he joined Matthews Memorial Baptist Church in S.E. Washington, D.C., where he faithfully served on the usher board and men’s choir until he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1951, serving as a member of the elite U.S. Army Airborne (“jumpers”) based in Fort Benning, Georgia.
On December 6, 1953, Enoch married Imogene (Gilliard), who he first met at their junior high school. Their union produced five children: Pernatha (Gilbert) Woods (deceased), Mabel Gilbert, Aaron Gilbert, Stephan Gilbert and Wayne Gilbert (deceased). The family eventually moved to their new home in the Michigan Park neighborhood in NE Washington. D.C. Enoch and Imogene were very active in the North Michigan Park Civic Association, where Enoch also served on the Red Hats team of residents who monitored neighborhood safety. Enoch was a retiree from the U.S. Postal Service, where he served at several bulk mail processing centers and sometimes prepared and/or accompanied mail rail cars between Washington and New York. Imogene preceded Enoch in death on April 16, 2022, physically separating them after 68 years of marriage.
One of Enoch’s hobbies was growing vegetables. He had garden plots in community gardens and grew vegetables at home in the back yard, side yard, and anywhere there was dirt and sunlight! He took pride in providing his homegrown greens for the Thanksgiving dinner held annually by his siblings, and blanched a freezer full of veggies to eat during the winter months. Another of Enoch’s hobbies was fishing in the nearby rivers and bay, but it would take a novel to describe those adventures, starting with him using one of his home garden beds to raise earthworms for fish bait, and his ‘meteorological’ method of watching the tree leaves in front of his home and, if they were continually blowing, he would declare the winds are too strong to go fishing on the Chesapeake Bay and he’d postpone the trip!
Enoch was proud of his family’s history in the Barry Farm community. In 2021, during the production of a documentary about the Barry Farm community (‘Barry Farm: Community, Land, and Justice in Washington DC’), the co-producers invited Enoch (and Imogene) to provide insights from their real-life experiences in Barry Farm and the broader Washington, D.C, area. The documentary was released in June 2022 and is often aired on local PBS stations and available on YouTube.
Enoch was preceded in death by siblings Mary “Mae” Ethel, Nanny Lucy, Willie Hazel, and Malinda Kate. Fond memories of Enoch will be cherished through six generations by his living siblings (Mabel Leigh, Lynn Wade, David Christopher, and Larry), children and in-laws, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren, and great-great-great grandchildren, and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, and other family and friends.
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