Gibson was introduced to Scrabble at age 6. He began playing tournament Scrabble in 1983 and won the
North American Scrabble Championship (NASC) in August 1994; although he had kept a relatively low profile in the Scrabble community, the win propelled him to No. 1 in the North American rankings. In 2016, Gibson won his second NASC title in
Fort Wayne,
Indiana. The term "
Gibsonization" for a process of pairings in a single-elimination final was named after Gibson due to his tendency to clinch tournaments before their final rounds. Gibson also taught mathematics for some four decades at the
Spartanburg Methodist College, and was awarded with an honorary distinction of professor emeritus by the college in early 2019. ==Death==