Harry U. Gilmer

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This article is about the product representative and City Council candidate. For the football player, see Harry Gilmer.

Harry U. Gilmer (born February 13, 1923 in Birmingham; died July 15, 1999) was a product representative for Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company and an at-large candidate for Birmingham City Council in the 1963 Birmingham municipal election.

Gilmer was the the third of four sons raised by Henry W. and Eva Gilmer of 1312 28th Street North. He graduated from Phillips High School and served as a fighter pilot in World War II. After the war, he completed a degree in chemical engineering at Auburn University in 1947.

As a product representative for TCI, Gilmer traveled around the region and was frustrated at the slow pace of growth in post-war Birmingham compared to other Southern cities. When he ran to become a member of the newly-created City Council, he expressed the need for "co-operation and eventual merger" of the city's suburbs as the only way the region could reach its potential. He also called for hiring more teachers and paying them better, and for expanding public transit.

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