James D. ‘Jim’ Gilpatrick, colorful Baltimore tobacconist known as a ‘consummate salesman,’ dies

Frederick N. Rasmussen, Baltimore Sun
·4 min read

James D. “Jim” Gilpatrick, the colorful former manager of Baltimore Street tobacconist A. Fader & Son, died of complications from dementia May 28 at Stella Maris Hospice. The former Bel Air resident was 83.

“Jim was just a laid-back and natural-born salesman,” said J. Calvin “Nippy” Jenkins, a Baltimore attorney and former customer. “If you called up central casting and told them to send over a salesman, it would be Jim. He was a big-framed man and made a presence whenever he entered a room.”

James Dennis Gilpatrick, son of Jules Irving Gilpatrick, an electrical engineer, and Emilie Kubicek Gilpatrick, a registered nurse, was born in Milwaukee, and raised in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

A 1958 graduate of Central High School in Sheboygan, he attended what was then the University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan as a pre-engineering student from 1958 to 1959, when he entered the Air Force.

A radar technician, he was stationed at Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado, until being discharged in 1963.

He began his career as a tobacconist in 1963 as a sales representative at The Tobacco Bar Limited in Madison, Wisconsin, and rose to become its manager.

After meeting Ira “Bill” Fader Jr., owner of A. Fader & Son, at an industry conference, Mr. Fader, who died earlier this year, offered Mr. Gilpatrick a sales job in Baltimore in the business at 201 E. Baltimore St. that was established in 1891.

Mr. Gilpatrick rose to vice president and general manager, where he was responsible for its eight retail locations: two in downtown Baltimore, Towson, Eastpoint Mall, Westview Mall, Annapolis, Owings Mills and Catonsville.

Mr. Gilpatrick, a distinguished-looking man with a carefully trimmed beard, who always dressed in braces, oxford button-down shirts that were worn with perfectly hand-tied bow ties, dispensed cigars, pipes and tobacco mixtures, not only with sartorial elegance, but with wit, wisdom and a certain aplomb.

“He was not a dandy, but was dapper,” Mr. Jenkins said.

Mr. Jenkins also said Mr. Gilpatrick “cared a great deal about the health impact of tobacco and refused to sell to minors. He monitored tobacco legislation in the state legislature each year. He was religious, but never took a holier-than-thou attitude when it came to the subject.”

Mr. Gilpatrick also had a refined sense of humor.

When Chief Iraba Fader, a 7-foot, 175-pound wooden likeness of a Native American, which stood in front of the Baltimore shop was hit by a car in 1981, Mr. Gilpatrick wrote a letter to the chairman of the state’s Workmen’s Compensation Commission.

“Tongue-in-cheek, he inquired whether Chief Iraba, who was a representative of the business, was entitled to any benefits under Section 67 of the Maryland Workmen’s Compensation Law,” reported the old Sunday Sun Magazine.

“Normally, we would not get involved in a matter such as this, but Chief Fader is a very dedicated, trusted and valued employee who holds an extremely important position in our company.”

Charles J. Krysiak, who was chairman of the commission, wrote back to Mr. Gilpatrick and advised that Chief Fader would be “required to testify as to the incident surrounding his accident. … It should be pointed out that all compensation under workmen’s compensation is based on a claimant’s average weekly wage and therein may lie your problem.”

After leaving Fader’s in 1991, Mr. Gilpatrick opened Rolling Road Tobacco Warehouse and Calvert Coffee Co. on York Road in Lutherville, a cigar and pipe emporium, which he operated until closing the business in 2001.

From 2005 to 2014, he was a sales consultant for Anderson Automotive in Cockeysville.

He became a sales representative for Boyle Buick in Bel Air in 2014, a position he held until 2017, when he retired.

“He was like Mr. Retail to me,” Mr. Jenkins said.

The longtime Stoneleigh resident had been a member of the Baltimore Jaycees, who gave him an award in 1976 for his contributions to Baltimore.

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He was an active member of the Stoneleigh Community Association and the Emerald Isle Society, among other groups.

During the 1980s he was a youth basketball coach.

A communicant of St. Pius X Roman Catholic Church in Rodgers Forge, he served on its home school association and parish council.

In the early 1990s, he and his wife, the former Michaele Ann Nowaskey, a Cathedral School educator for more than 25 years, moved to Baldwin.

The couple, who lived in Harford County for 30 years, raised and showed Newfoundlands, corgis and collies.

“One of their dogs competed in the Westminster Kennel Club competition in New York City,” said a daughter, Bridget Gilpatrick Armstrong, of Phoenix in Baltimore County.

He was a fan of classic country, Tom Clancy novels, the University of Maryland Terps and the Ravens, and he enjoyed golfing.

His wife of 55 years died in 2020.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered for Mr. Gilpatrick at 12:30 p.m. June 24 at Nativity Roman Catholic Church in Timonium.

In addition to his daughter, he is survived by a son, Clancy P. Gilpatrick, of Nottingham; two other daughters, Jamie Gilpatrick Anderson, of Havre de Grace, and Heather M. Gilpatrick, of Stafford, Virginia; two brothers, Rick Giplatrick, of Madison, and Chuck Gilpatrick, of Daytona Beach, Florida; a sister, Elizabeth Gilpatrick, of Louisville, Colorado; and eight grandchildren.