Gilbert J. Tucker was born in Philadelphia in 1930. From an early age he showed an interest in illustration and was encouraged by an art teacher in junior high school. Upon graduating from Simon Gratz High School, he was awarded a scholarship to the Philadelphia School of Industrial Art, now called the University of the Arts.

 After his graduation with a diploma in illustration from the Philadelphia School of Industrial Art in 1951, he freelanced as an illustrator before being drafted into the military in January 1952. During his two years of military service, Mr. Tucker utilized his art training by providing training aids, signs, and illustrations for different army units to which he was assigned.

 When his military service ended in December 1953, Mr. Tucker was no longer interested in freelancing and sought a permanent position in the art field. He had difficulty securing work so he left the field until 1958 when he found a job as a technical and commercial illustrator on government contracts. He first worked for Philco and then RCA. Mr. Tucker found time to continue his education and was awarded a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Philadelphia Museum College of Art in 1962.

 From 1968 to 1980, Mr. Tucker was employed by the Editorial Art Department for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. It was while working for the Bulletin that he was able to exercise the full range of his abilities by providing illustrations to complement articles written for the newspaper.

After he left the Bulletin, he worked briefly on government projects at Boeing Aircraft doing illustrations of helicopters and technical drafting.  He obtained a position in 1982 at RCA, which was bought by General Electric and then by Lockheed Martin. He made illustrations for proposals for the government and also did technical illustrations for manuals.

Since retiring in 1993, Mr. Tucker devotes much of his time to watercolor painting, including landscapes and cityscapes around Philadelphia and the new Jersey shore.   Many of his works are on consignment at the Rosenfeld Gallery located at 113 Arch Street in the Old City section of Philadelphia. Mr. Tucker has also submitted a manuscript that is currently being considered for publication entitled One of Millions, a memoir of his time in the military.