Gordon O Ifill Sr

Gordon Owen Ifill, fondly known as “Spike” and/or “Sonny”, 94, passed away on February 19, 2024, at Mt. Auburn Hospital.

Gordon was born on September 22, 1929, in Cambridge, Massachusetts to parents Oliver Ifill and Edna Bynoe Ifill of Barbados, West Indies. Gordon was one of seven children. He was educated in the Cambridge Public Schools and graduated from Cambridge Ringe and Latin School.

Gordon had a successful career from 1948 to 1954 as a middle weight boxer where he had a knockout rate of 67%. Gordon enlisted in the Army and served his country in the Korean war from March 1951 until February 1953. During his tour of duty, he was the Golden Gloves boxing Champion and earned the Korean Peace Medal, Korean Service Medal with Bronze Star and the United Nations Service Medal.

While Gordon Ifill had many jobs, he will be most remembered for his grocery deliveries atop his pink Cadillac for Carl’s Market in Central Square and his twenty plus years of employment as a mechanic for the Cambridge Housing Authority from which he retired in 1998.

Gordon will be remembered by family and friends as being a charismatic man with a great sense of humor and a smile that could light up a room. He will be remembered for carrying a big stick around while he walked his dogs, his Cadillacs, for his style of dress and his dancing skills. Gordon was “old school” and pulled no punches when it came to keeping family and friends in line when he deemed it appropriate. He was a no-nonsense man with a love for family and friends and was admired and respected by those who knew him.

He is preceded in death by his parents Oliver and Edna Ifill, his siblings, Stanley Ifill, Evelyn Ifill, Harold Ifill, Kathleen (Ifill) McCollin, and his son, Gordon O. Ifill Jr. He is survived by his sisters Dorothy (Ifill) Clarke and Jean (Ifill) Sykes and daughters, Valarie Ifill, Victoria Ifill, Veronica Ifill and Von-Dee (Ifill) Robinson. He also leaves several nieces, nephews, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and a host of other relatives and friends.

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