Representative Dean Milton Gillespie

Dean Milton Gillespie (May 3, 1884 – February 2, 1949) was an American businessman and Republican politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Colorado during two terms in the United States Congress in the mid-1940s. Representing Colorado in the House of Representatives from March 7, 1944, to January 3, 1947, he participated in the legislative process during a significant period in American history, including the final years of World War II and the immediate postwar era.

Gillespie was born in Salina, Kansas, the youngest son of Dr. D. M. Gillespie and Mrs. D. M. Gillespie of Blaine Township, Clay County, Kansas. His father was a Kansas pioneer, a practicing physician, and the publisher of a temperance newspaper entitled The Rising Sun, reflecting the family’s engagement with public issues and reform movements of the late nineteenth century. Dean Gillespie attended public schools in Kansas and continued his education at Salina Normal University. From 1900 to 1904, he engaged in agricultural pursuits and cattle raising in Clay County, Kansas, gaining early experience in business and land-based enterprises.

In 1905 Gillespie moved to Denver, Colorado, where he initially worked as a grocery clerk, sign painter, and salesman. That same year he entered the emerging automobile and oil industries, fields in which he would remain active for decades. Through persistence and entrepreneurial skill, he built a substantial business career in Denver. On January 29, 1908, he married Lillie Baldwin in Golden, Colorado; the couple had two daughters, one of whom, Ruth Gillespie, became an attorney in Denver. Lillie Gillespie remained an important part of his family life and public standing until her death in 1941.

Over the ensuing years, Gillespie expanded his business interests in Colorado. He became involved in the automobile and oil business on a larger scale and, on September 14, 1936, he founded Power Equipment Company, which was incorporated under the corporate laws of Colorado. Operations were initially conducted through two affiliated corporations, Power Equipment Co. and Dean Gillespie & Co., which controlled the franchises for Allis-Chalmers construction equipment and White Motor trucks. His success in these ventures established him as a prominent businessman in Denver. Beyond his commercial activities, he was active in civic and fraternal life, serving as an Elk, Mason, and Shriner, and participating in a number of organizations that reflected his standing in the community.

Gillespie’s prominence in business and civic affairs led to his entry into national politics as a member of the Republican Party. He was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-eighth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Representative Lawrence Lewis, taking his seat on March 7, 1944. He was subsequently reelected to the Seventy-ninth Congress and served until January 3, 1947. During his tenure, he represented the interests of his Colorado constituents and contributed to the legislative process at a time when Congress was addressing wartime mobilization, the transition to a peacetime economy, and the early contours of postwar policy. His service in Congress thus coincided with a pivotal era in American political and economic life. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1946 to the Eightieth Congress, bringing his formal congressional career to a close.

After leaving Congress, Gillespie returned to his former business pursuits in Denver. He resumed leadership roles in the enterprises he had helped to build, serving as president of Dean Gillespie & Company, president of Motoroyal Oil Company, and vice president of BluHill Food Corporation. His activities in these firms underscored his continued influence in regional commerce and industry. Outside of business and politics, he cultivated a notable personal interest in science; he assembled what was described as the world’s largest collection of meteorites and frequently delivered talks on meteorites, sharing his enthusiasm and knowledge with public audiences.

In his later years, Gillespie remained active in business and public life until his health declined. While on a business trip, he checked himself into Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, where he died of a heart attack on February 2, 1949. Dean Milton Gillespie was interred in Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado, closing a life that spanned the transformation of the American West, the rise of the automobile and oil industries, and a period of national and international upheaval during which he served his state and country in the United States Congress.