Gilbert (Gil) Parmele was born on December 11,1931 on Staten Island, New York and died on June 1, 2020. Gil was married to his beloved wife, the late, Anne (Madden) Parmele, for 40 years and is survived by sons John (Jack) Parmele and David Parmele, and David’s wife Tricia; three grandchildren: Amanda & Bill Parmele and Grace Parmele, and many wonderful nieces and nephews. Gil was predeceased by his parents Henry Gilbert W. and Helen Bogert Parmele, and brothers Russell and Roome Parmele.
Gil graduated from The Staten Island Academy (1950) and The College of William & Mary (1954). He served as an Army Lieutenant in Korea and had a long and successful career in Sports Broadcasting. Gil combined his affinity for sports, thirst for knowledge and knack for statistics to become a innovator in the sports broadcasting industry, harvesting anecdotes and stats that supported some of the biggest personalities of their day, including Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell and Chris Berman. Employed by both ABC and NBC in the 1960s, he served as Chief Studio Statistician on ABC-TV’s “College Scoreboard” show and NBC’s Pro-Football Post Season shows. Gil created the concept of “a note, per game, per show” which is still in standard use today.
Through the 1970s, he wrote and produced “Frank Gifford’s Sports” for ABC radio, the 2nd most listened to show on network radio. He went on to be one of the first employees of Enterprise Radio in the early 1980’s and in 1984, Gil covered both the Summer and Winter Olympics for RKO Radio Network. He joined ESPN in 1985, working on their flagship show “SportsCenter.” One of his signature pieces of work, “Gil’s Goodies”, became an indispensable insight for nearly every on-air personality. Gil was recognized with Emmy Awards in 2004 and 2005 for his work on SportsCenter, and was inducted into The Staten Island Academy Athletic Alumni Hall of Fame in 2009. In 2018, Gil was inducted into the Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame for his long and accomplished career in sports, becoming the first and only person to be inducted into both Halls.
Gil was known for his love of family, sports, music, work ethic and his kindhearted manner. Gil had the special ability to find and share joy with everyone he touched.
A private Mass will take place at St. John the Evangelist Church in Wellesley, MA. In lieu of gifts or flowers, the family requests donations be made to support cancer care at Newton Wellesley Hospital, https://giving.nwh.org/donate .