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Some 500 mourners attended the funeral of Gilbert (Gibby) Rosenberg on Sunday, and it seemed almost everybody there had a story of how the well-known restaurateur had touched their lives.

Rosenberg, 86, the co-founder of Gibby’s steakhouses in Old Montreal and St-Sauveur, died suddenly of a heart attack at his home in Westmount on Thursday. He leaves his wife of 56 years, Soryl Shulman Rosenberg, as well as four children, four grandchildren and his sister, Phyllis.

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An avid sailor who circled the globe in his yacht, a skydiver who did 48 jumps and a motorcyclist who rode a Honda Gold Wing, Rosenberg did things most people only dream about. But above all, he was “a gentle, honest mensch who did good for others,” said Rabbi Adam Scheier of the Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, where Rosenberg was a lifetime member.

Nadine Rabinovitch, 57, came in from Toronto to pay tribute to the kindly former neighbour who took her under his wing when she lost her father to cancer at 16.