Coming B. Gibbs, Jr. was born September 19, 1936, in Charleston, SC, to parents Coming B. Gibbs and Dorothy Seay Gibbs. He was a 1954 graduate of Saint Mark’s School in Southborough, MA. In 1958, he graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor’s degree in politics, and in 1961, graduated magna cum laude from the USC School of Law.
From 1961 to 1963, he was the law clerk to Judge Clement F. Haynsworth, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals. In 1963, he commenced practice with his father. C.B. was a member of Gibson, Gibbs and Krawcheck and, thereafter, Gibbs, Gaillard, Rowell and Tannenbaum. In 1983, he and Allan R. Holmes formed the firm of Gibbs and Holmes, where he was special counsel until his death.
Gibbs was active in Bar matters and served as president of the Charleston Young Lawyers Club and Charleston County Bar Association. He was one of the lawyers who created the Neighborhood Legal Assistance Program, a federally funded legal services program for indigents. He worked with many substance abuse issues, including those affecting lawyers, both as a mentor and as a lawyer.
Gibbs often said that a person’s life could be measured by how his children, of whom he was a very proud father, turned out, and if he helped anyone along the way. His girls turned out fine, he did help others, and he died without regrets, feeling he had done what he could do. He embodied the ancient command that the law be not a money making trade, but a profession.
Gibbs received the USC School of Law Alumni Association Compleat Lawyer Platinum Award and was the first recipient to receive the James Louis Petigru Medal from the Charleston County Bar Association. He was a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of the Saint James Santee Episcopal Church.
Coming B. Gibbs, Jr. died on September 27, 2012. He is survived by his wife, Beverly S. Gibbs; daughters, Georgianna “Janna” G. Wynne, Susan G. Durkin, Mary C. Gibbs and Helen G. Harkins; four grandchildren, Thomas (III) and Asa G. Wynne, and Allen and Hadley Harkins; brother, William J. Gibbs; and sister, Elizabeth L. Gibbs.