Reginald Deveber Gilbert was New Brunswick’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from 1957 to 1973. As deputy minister Mr. Gilbert constantly strove to upgrade agricultural facilities. During the 1960s he provided strong leadership in developing policies and programs under the Agricultural Rehabilitation and Development Act and the Fund for Rural Economic Development.

He was also concerned with the establishment of good marketing procedures and secondary agricultural industries. From 1960 to 1983 Mr. Gilbert was chairman of the Natural Products Control Board, now the Farm Products Marketing Commission, which is responsible for the operation of marketing boards in New Brunswick. Approximately 80 percent of farm production in the province is regulated by a marketing board or agency. He also played a very important role in developing a large fruit and vegetable processing industry in New Brunswick.

Mr. Gilbert was also active on the national front. He was one of the organizers of the first conference of federal and provincial Ministers and Deputy Ministers of Agriculture in Canada in 1950. These meetings have continued on an annual basis.

Mr. Gilbert was honoured many times for his service to agriculture. In 1974 he was made an honourary associate of the Nova Scotia Agricultural College. He was awarded the Centennial Medal in 1967, made a Fellow of the Agricultural Institute of Canada in 1976 and was a recipient of the Queen’s Twenty-Fifth Anniversary medal in 1977. He is a past president of the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame Association, and in 1982 was inducted into the Atlantic Agricultural Hall of Fame in Truro, Nova Scotia.