Loara Assistant Coach Gib Dear Dies of Respiratory Failure at 58

Henry Gilbert (Gib) Dear an assistant football coach at Loara High School for the past 24 years, died Saturday night of respiratory failure at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach. He was 58.

He is survived by his wife, Alice. The Dears didn’t have children.

Dear, who had retired at the end of the 1985 season after it was determined he was suffering from a malignant brain tumor and lung cancer, worked with Loara Coach Herb Hill for 31 years. Dear and Hill worked at Garden Grove and Rancho Alamitos high schools and Orange Coast College before going to Loara.

Hill accepted the coaching job at Loara in 1962 under the stipulation that Dear be hired as a teacher, as well as an assistant coach. Dear and his wife lived on Balboa Island for 31 years.

A tribute was held in honor of Dear’s retirement last November at the Grand Hotel in Anaheim. More than 500 friends and former players gathered to honor him. The family decided that the tribute will take the place of a funeral.

The 1985 Saxon football team also dedicated its last game of the season to Dear.

Dear’s body will be cremated and buried at sea by the Neptune Society.