Our Story
From Earl Gentry in 1966 to the Gilmore family today.
A DeLand fuel company that kept the name, the yard, and the work — 60 years and counting.
Gentry Oil did not start as a logo or an LLC. It started with a man in DeLand who understood that farms, shops, and job sites live and die by whether the tank is full. In 1966, Earl Gentry put that idea to work and founded the company that still carries his name.
1966
Earl Gentry builds a fuel company in DeLand.
Earl already knew how to start over. In 1942 he was a DeLand beverage salesman whose work disappeared with the war. He trained at the local vocational school, became a first-class welder at the Babcock aircraft plant, and stayed in the town that had given him a second trade. Decades later he used that same grit to start Gentry Oil — a local petroleum business built to show up, fill the tank, and treat people straight.
The company grew the way West Volusia grows: one delivery, one relationship, one account that needed someone who would answer the phone. Earl kept the work close to home. The name on the truck was his own.
1988
Bob Gilmore buys the company — and keeps Earl's name on the door.
In 1988, Bob Gilmore purchased Gentry Oil from Earl. He did not rebrand it into a stranger. He kept the name because the work had not changed: diesel and gasoline to the customer's storage tank, lubricants on the shelf, and a person in DeLand who still knew the account.
Bob has run the company ever since. The formal LLC was organized in 2004, and Gilmore Trucking operates from the same address at 1761 Langley Avenue — the delivery arm of the same family shop. Ownership and day-to-day decisions stay with the people you reach on the phone.
Today
Still family. Still DeLand. Still in the tank business.
60 years after Earl started, Gentry Oil still works from 1761 Langley Avenue in DeLand. The focus today is commercial fuel delivery and government contracts — construction sites, municipal, county and state operations, agricultural customers, generator fuel needs and industrial accounts.
We deliver diesel treated with Schaeffer's additive, E10 gasoline and non-ethanol gasoline in 87 and 90 octane to our customers' storage tanks, and offer a full range of lubricants, fuel tanks, Fill-Rite pumps and accessories, and Fill-Rite pump repair.
The people behind Gentry Oil
Bob Gilmore: Knowledge, hard work, and heart.
Gentry Oil owner Bob Gilmore brings exceptional mechanical knowledge and a tireless work ethic to the business. He combines a practical understanding of how things work with a genuine kindness that shapes how he treats people.
For Bob, employees are family. His care for the people around him is part of what makes Gentry Oil a personal, locally owned business. Technical ability matters here, and so do respect, hard work, and looking after one another.