Gilbert's love for Rangers, New York endures beyond his passing

Five years after his passing, Judy Gilbert remembers her late husband Rod for a great deal more than his Hockey Hall of Fame career. 

She cherishes the compassion for others that came naturally to the New York Rangers legend, who so embodied the franchise that he was nicknamed "Mr. Ranger." 

She holds tight her memories of his embrace of his adopted city, in high-profile events and then quietly, fully off the radar. And she laughs when she recalls his world-class sense of humor.

Rod Gilbert was lost to cancer on Aug. 19, 2021 at age 80, among five NHL greats who died during a terrible eight-month span that claimed Tony Esposito, Gilbert, Clark Gillies, Mike Bossy and Guy Lafleur.

Rod and Judy Gilbert walk the red carpet before the 2007 Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in Toronto (left) and on vacation in Greece in 2018, their final trip abroad.

Judy Gilbert still lives in the Upper East Side Manhattan apartment that she and Rod called home, and on the fifth anniversary of her husband’s passing, she’ll be with her family.

“I’d never leave here,” she said on Tuesday. “For most people, it feels strange to move (after a death). Leaving is leaving your loved one behind in many ways. Life goes on and Rod always said, ‘Life is for the living.’ This is my comfort.”

Judy’s emotions were raw in conversation a year after Gilbert’s death, still processing his loss. On Tuesday, on the eve of another anniversary, we connected again.

“Time does heal, I have to tell you that,” she said. “When we spoke on the first anniversary it was more difficult for me. But life allows you to heal. All we have is that time."

Rod and Judy Gilbert on their April 1991 wedding day, and a portrait of Gilbert from his wife’s collection.

“This will be a day of remembrance, a very important day. There are very special days always – our wedding anniversary, the day of Rod’s passing and his birthday, Canada Day (July 1). 

“It always seems that something good happens on Rod’s birthday, I can’t explain it. Wherever I am, it feels like he’s there and something good happens. I feel his presence. The other day I really felt it in my heart for the first time. I couldn’t believe how strong it was.”

Born July 1, 1941 in Princeville, Quebec and raised in Montreal, Gilbert seemed destined for the Big Apple. Talented, brash and larger than life with matinee idol good looks, he quite literally became a part of New York hockey’s fabric.

He would play every one of his 1,065 regular-season NHL games for the Rangers from 1961-77, scoring 1,021 points (406 goals, 615 assists). His points and goals remain franchise records, his assists second only to the 741 of defenseman Brian Leetch.

In his second full NHL season, Rod Gilbert shoots on Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Johnny Bower during a Nov. 16, 1963 game at Maple Leaf Gardens. The puck is sailing under Bower’s glove but Gilbert didn’t score on the play.

In 79 Stanley Cup Playoff games, Gilbert scored 67 points (34 goals, 33 assists).

The eight-time NHL All-Star, who represented Canada in the historic 1972 Summit Series against a team from the Soviet Union, most famously played right wing, alongside center Jean Ratelle and left wing Vic Hadfield, on the Rangers’ "GAG (goal-a-game) Line." His No. 7 was the first of now 11 numbers retired by the team, raised to Madison Square Garden rafters on Oct. 14, 1979.

Overcoming two back-fusion surgeries to become one of the most dazzling players of his generation, Gilbert was awarded the 1975-76 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey, elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1984, and awarded the 1991 Lester Patrick Trophy for contributions to hockey in the U.S.

To celebrate Gilbert’s importance to the Rangers, the team introduced the “Mr. Ranger Award” during the 2021-22 season, presented to the player “who best honors Rod’s legacy by exemplifying leadership qualities both on and off the ice and making a significant humanitarian contribution to his community.”

New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider takes a face-off wearing the commemorative Rod Gilbert patch sewn on the team's 2021-22 jerseys, and at Madison Square Garden with Judy Gilbert on April 27, 2022, receiving the Rangers' inaugural Mr. Ranger Award.

From his retirement in November 1977 until almost his death, Gilbert worked tirelessly for charities in his adopted home of New York, raising funds for and awareness of myriad causes. Almost impossibly, he was even more popular off the ice than he was on it.

Gilbert would walk into a room packed with celebrities and captains of industry and be among the brightest lights, and then lend his time and name to the tiniest cause because of his belief in it.

His circle of friends extended far beyond the hockey arena. Gilbert was fiercely proud of his friendship with the late Ken Taylor, Canada’s ambassador in Iran who in 1979 protected then, in concert with the CIA, helped to spirit six Americans out of the country during the Iranian hostage crisis.

In the aftermath of the 2001 horror of 9/11, Gilbert would put on a hard hat and visit with first responders and crews at Ground Zero. During the COVID pandemic every night at 7 p.m., he would stand on his 33rd-floor balcony, blaring Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” through a speaker while tapping the heavy lumber of his No. 7 Gilbert-stenciled Sher-Wood stick on the railing, hollering encouragement down to those who were keeping the city safe.

Rod Gilbert on Montreal Forum ice.

"I make the most noise of anyone in the building," he said during a 2020 talk. "I'm tapping my stick as if I'm calling for a pass, which is exactly what I'm getting from all the people I'm thanking. They're all trying to help us get back to normal.

"I blast it all over the place," he said of Sinatra’s signature tune. "In every building around us, people clap and make noise to show their gratitude to the first responders, doctors, nurses, health-care people, police, cab drivers, the grocers and those who deliver for them.”

Judy Gilbert remembers the Ground Zero visits, the stick tap and much more.

“I’d say the first thing that comes to mind is Rod’s kindness,” she said. “Beyond kind. If there’s another word, I don’t have it.”

Unbeknownst to his wife, Gilbert visited the temporary morgue established near Ground Zero by the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in the aftermath of 9/11.

Rod Gilbert in 1972 action at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

“I didn’t know he’d done that,” Judy said. “He didn’t tell me half the things he did. I remember our going to dinner with a very famous NYPD detective from the French Connection, Sonny Grosso. He brought along another couple of cops and one said, ‘You know, Rod, you were the only celebrity who went to the 9/11 morgue.’” 

There were many sublime moments, but so too was there plentiful laughter. Gilbert never fully lost his French-Canadian accent and his rapid-fire stream of consciousness in sometimes fractured English often tripped his tongue and confounded listeners.

“Rod would tell me, ‘You sent me on a wild chase goose,’” Judy recalled. “After a while, I didn’t know whether it was wild chase goose or wild goose chase. But I never corrected his English.

“He told me a story about Glen Sather, who was playing for the Bruins (in the mid-1960s). Glen would say to Rod from the bench, 'I’m going to get you,' and Rod would say, 'How are you going to do that? You’re never on the ice.'”

Then there was a memorable trip to France with friends, during which Judy surprised her husband with a 60th birthday party.

Rod Gilbert in action with Team Canada during the 1972 Summit Series, and with Rangers linemates Jean Ratelle (center) and Vic Hadfield on Dec. 2, 2018 at Hadfield's jersey retirement at Madison Square Garden

“That shocked him,” she said. 

At one point during the holiday, Gilbert popped into a store and in his Quebecois French asked the clerk for change to buy some bottled water from a machine. The clerk understood Gilbert’s pronunciation of machine (properly ma-shin) to be “ma chien” (my dog), and offered him a bowl of water for the dog he didn’t have.

“I told you that you couldn’t speak French!” Gilbert’s friend chided him.

On Wednesday’s fifth anniversary of her husband’s passing, Judy Gilbert will wear a sterling silver locket that Gilbert had his stepdaughter, Brooke, buy for him and tuck away for safekeeping. 

In fragile health, he knew his days were short as he battled cancer and he wanted the locket to be a way that Judy could keep him close to her heart after he was gone. When the time was right, Gilbert would offer Judy the gift. The time came five years ago during his final days in hospice care in the couple’s apartment.

Rod Gilbert parks himself in front of Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Jacques Plante with teammate Vic Hadfield (11) and Toronto defenseman Jim Dorey.

Father Donald Baker, the priest of Church of St. Monica in New York, met Brooke in the lobby of the apartment building and rode 33 floors up. There he blessed the locket and gave it to Gilbert, who presented it to his wife. In it were two photos he had chosen: one from the couple’s 1991 wedding day, the other of himself smiling.

Four days later, Gilbert was gone. Father Baker would celebrate the life of the Rangers cornerstone five nights later at St. Monica’s in a 75-minute memorial service.

“Rod just wanted me to have something,” Judy said of the priceless gift, and much more. “He was so special and thoughtful, to the very end.”

Top photo: Rod Gilbert in a 1962-63 portrait, and during the 1970s.