Dean M. Gillespie

Who was Dean M. Gillespie?

Dean Milton Gillespie was a U.S. Representative from Colorado.

Born in Salina, Kansas, Gillespie attended the public schools and Salina Normal University. He engaged in agricultural pursuits and cattle raising in Clay County, Kansas from 1900 to 1904. He moved to Denver, Colorado, in 1905 and worked as grocery clerk, sign painter, and salesman. He engaged in the automobile and oil business since 1905.

Gillespie founded Power Equipment Company and incorporated under the corporate laws of Colorado on September 14, 1936. Operations were initially conducted through two affiliated corporations, Power Equipment Co. and Dean Gillespie & Co., which firms controlled the franchises for Allis-Chalmers Construction Equipment and White Motor trucks.

Gillespie was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-eighth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Lawrence Lewis, reelected to the Seventy-ninth Congress, and served from March 7, 1944, to January 3, 1947. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1946 to the Eightieth Congress. Reengaged in his former business pursuits until his death, while on a business trip, in Baltimore, Maryland, February 2, 1949. He was interred in Fairmount Cemetery, Denver, Colorado.