Bobbi Gibb

The First Woman to Run the Boston Marathon, 1966

Recognized by the Boston Athletic Association as the Women's Winner in 1966, 1967, and 1968

Biography

Roberta Louise Gibb

About the Artist

Roberta Louise Gibb, known as Bobbi Gibb, studied Sculpture at the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, and subsequently as a private student with Richard Gibney, Richard Recchia, and Walker Hancock, famous Cape Ann sculptors.

An exciting contemporary artist, Gibb has exhibited at the exclusive Geracci Gallery on Boston’s North Shore; at The Rockport Art Association in Rockport, Massachusetts; and in Del Mar, California.

Bobbi Gibb was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon. She first ran in 1966, at a time when it was generally believed that women could not run marathon distances and were not allowed to do so under the rules of the American Athletic Union, which confined women to running no more than the sanctioned 1.5 miles. Bobbi Gibb has been officially recognized as the women's winner in 1966, 1967 and 1968, and her name, Roberta Louise Gibb, inscribed on the Boston Athletic Associations Memorial in Copley Square. Her run in 1966 was a pivotal event in changing the way men thought about women and the way women thought about themselves.

Her deep grounding in athletics enables her to sculpture athletes with unusual sensitivity and grace. Her work is on permanent exhibition at the National Art Museum of Sport in Indianapolis. Germaine Glidden, Founder of the National Art Museum of Sport, said of her work, “It captures the human spirit in Bronze.”

Sculptures in bronze and clay include: Jimmy Carter; Lyndon B. Johnson; Ronald Reagan; Olympia (given as the prize for the first women’s Olympic marathon trials); Albert Einstein; Eleanor Roosevelt; Mother Theresa; Mother and Child; Germaine; Maria; Tree of Life; Apollo; Boy and Goose; The Gymnasts; Squash Players; Indian Runner; Four Marathoners (acquired by the National Art Museum of Sport); The Winners; The Runners; five dancers entitled The Maenads; Basketball Players; Mother and Child Playing; Mother, Father and Children; Nina; Suel; Leif; Horse Running; Rob; Charles; Saint Theresa Praying; Saint Theresa Portrait; Marathon Man; Lovers; and others.

Gibb’s work also includes:
The MIT mural at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1972-1992;
The La Jolla murals at UCSD, 1966-1986;
Murals on canvas entitled The Creation, The Garden, Life, and Torrey Pines (in progress)'; and numerous paintings.

Gibb uses her expertise in human anatomy and her inward sense of the human body in motion to render exquisite bronze sculptures of athletes and dancers. Gibb graduated from the University of California at La Jolla in 1969. From her love of biology and sense of wonder of life, she derives the inspiration for her paintings and murals. Gibb practiced law for seventeen years while raising a family and continuing to pursue her artistic career. Her inspiration comes from her essentially spiritual sense of life, from the beauty she finds in nature and the wonder of the human figure and face. Gibb has been included in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World.