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Way back in 1947 Roger “Bob” Gilmore went to work for Byron and Rhoda Bolfing at their Elmwood Hardware store on College Avenue in Berkeley’s Elmwood neighborhood. 

Fresh out of World War II and not that long out of Berkeley High School (“I’m a Yellow Jacket, class of ‘41” ), Gilmore was employed by a local engine manufacturing company when his new mother-in-law suggested the Bolfings would enjoy talking with him. 

“I’d been selling something from the time I was a little kid, selling magazines in the Depression years and everything. There wasn’t a moment when I wasn’t selling something. But after the war manpower was a tough situation. My mother-in-law was working for them part-time,” Gilmore recalled. 

“We got together and decided to try it out for a while and see how we liked it. We thought we’d meet later and find out whether it was going to work or not but we never got around to that second meeting,” he said laughing. 

Their relationship and the store grew for the next 22 years, the store doubling in size in the early 60s. In 1969 Byron and Rhoda decided to retire and offered the shop to their longtime employee.  

“We had a little talk and they asked if I wanted to take on the responsibility,” Gilmore recalled. “I said I’d love to if we can make something because I didn’t have a lot of big money stored up. So we wrote a contract.” 

Like the Bolfings, Gilmore and his beloved wife Jeanette ran the store together until she passed away early last year. 

With his 80th birthday approaching this Wednesday, Sept. 11th, the tall and lanky man decided to retire. Like the Bolfings before him, Gilmore offered the store and building to his former employee and longtime friend and tenant, 45-year old Tad Laird and his wife Nancy. 

In his 57 years on College Avenue, Gilmore has watched Berkeley grow from a modest college town into a city with an international reputation for academic excellence and progressive political positions.  

“It’s not just a college town any more; it’s a city and a very metropolitan city,” Gilmore said. “It’s a place where there’s room for everyone’s opinion, no matter what the opinion. 

“You’ve got people as far in left field as you can get, and you’ve got people as far in right field as you can get. And they all blend in Berkeley and this is the beauty of it.” 

Elmwood Hardware has been in continuous existence since 1923. “It was born the same year I was,” said Gilmore with a smile. 

Standing behind the counter in a neighborhood hardware store, helping generations of Berkeley and North Oakland residents, has given him a deep appreciation for his community and his place in it. 

“A hardware store is the supplier of the things to keep your house functioning,” said Gilmore. 

“If you want to fix it, the tools are there and the knowledge is there. We try to be not only the supplier of tools but the mentors and the education of it. When we sell a can of paint we try and make sure they do it right so they’ll still be pleased five years from now in the job they did.” 

While he decries big box stores, like “Home Despot,” as he refers to Emeryville’s megalithic competitor, Gilmore speaks fondly of his local competitors at family-owned Berkeley Hardware. 

In fact Gilmore speaks warmly of everyone and holds close to his family of customers, fellow merchants in the Elmwood, and members of his various social organizations, including Berkeley Rotary, the Berkeley Breakfast Club and his Masonic brothers. 

Gilmore says he plans to spend his new found leisure time restoring a home he recently purchased in Montclair, but his agreement with Laird includes an extended stint of “helping out” the new owners of Bolfing’s Elmwood Hardware. 

Bolfing’s Elmwood Hardware and The Elmwood Merchants Association have invited residents to join them for an evening in recognition and celebration of Roger “Bob” Gilmore’s 80th Birthday and honoring his 56 years of continuous service to the Elmwood District at Bolfing’s Elmwood Hardware on Tuesday, Sept. 16t at Shen Hua Restaurant, 2914 College Ave. 

A no-host bar opens at 5:30 p.m., followed by a buffet dinner at 6:30, followed by music, dancing and reminiscing until the doors close. Tickets are available at many Elmwood Merchants for $20 in advance or $22 at the door.