Educator and scholar R. Oliver Gibson (1914-2002), also known as “Ollie”, was born in Nova Scotia, Canada and received his BA from Mount Allison University in 1941, and both his MA (1950) and PhD (1955) in Education from Harvard University. He began his teaching career at a one-room schoolhouse in rural Nova Scotia where he later served as an elementary school principal. After service as a research associate and lecturer at Harvard, Gibson joined the University at Buffalo faculty in 1961 as a professor in the department of Educational Administration and continued until his retirement in 1984. Within this time he also served as chair within his department, acted as dean of the School of Social Policy and Community Services (now the School of Social Work), director of the Clinical Conference for School Personnel Administrators, president of the Collegiate Association for the Development of Educational Administration, and president of the Buffalo chapter of United University Professions, the union representing SUNY faculty and professional staff.

Gibson was editor of two significant journals, Urban Education and Educational Administration Abstracts, and published more than 40 journal articles, monographs, and book chapters. His most notable work was The School Personnel Administrator," with Harold C. Hunt of Harvard (1965, Houghton Mifflin). This text was the benchmark against which all other works on personnel administration in education are measured.

Among Gibson’s accolades are his awards of the Queen’s Medal in 1953, the Distinguished Educator Award from the UB chapter of Phi Delta Kappa in 1984 and in 2001 the Graduate School of Education recognized Gibson's lifetime of achievements with the Dedicated Educator Award.