David Gibson (Scrabble player)

The eldest of three children,^[1] David Lawrence Gibson^[2] was born in 1951^[3] in Raleigh, North Carolina^[2] and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, where his parents owned an auto parts locating company.^[4] A graduate of North Mecklenburg High School and Furman University,^[2] he excelled in mathematics but fared considerably poorly in English.^[4] In 1975, Gibson and his family moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina.^[1]

Gibson was introduced to Scrabble at age 6.^[5] He began playing tournament Scrabble in 1983 and won the North American Scrabble Championship (NASC) in August 1994; although he had kept a relatively low profile in the Scrabble community, the win propelled him to No. 1 in the North American rankings.^[4] In 1995, Gibson won the "Scrabble Superstars" tournament and its top prize of $50,000.^[6] Gibson finished second in the 2012 NASC; only needing to lose by fewer than 169 points to win the title, he ended up losing 298–475 in the final round against Nigel Richards.^[7] In 2016, Gibson won his second NASC title in Fort Wayne, Indiana.^[6] The term "Gibsonization" for a process of pairings in a single-elimination final was named after Gibson due to his tendency to clinch tournaments before their final rounds.^[8] Gibson also taught mathematics for some four decades at the Spartanburg Methodist College,^[9] and was awarded with an honorary distinction of professor emeritus by the college in early 2019.^[2]

Gibson died aged 68 on November 22, 2019, due to complications from stage four pancreatic cancer.^[2]