November 12, 1944 – December 7, 2023
Philip Dennis Gallagher, of Dallas, passed away peacefully at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital on Dec. 7, 2023, in the company of a loving family.
He was the first of nine children, born on Nov. 12, 1944, to Dr. Harry and Mrs. Eileen Gallagher, late of Dallas, Pennsylvania. He is survived by his siblings: Molly McNally, Michael Gallagher, Anne Robinson, Brian Gallagher, Neal Gallagher, and 15 nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his wife, Pat Gayler; siblings: Jane Nicholson, Paul Gallagher, Tommy Gallagher; and parents: Dr. Harry Gallagher and Mrs. Eileen Gallagher.
When I was a boy, my father’s brother used to visit for the summer. After the snow melted, he would call my father to let him know that he was leaving Colorado. When I asked him, “When will Uncle Phil be home?” He would think, and without worry say, “Well … I don’t know.”
He would arrive whenever he was ready, in late May or early June. His bright white hair gave him the appearance of an elderly man though he was always lithe and fit. He had left home at 18 to join the Army so he always made it a priority to come back to spend the summer with his large family; his arrival was a comfort to his mother and father, and a joy to his nieces and nephews. He read books endlessly, built porches, took long boat rides, and enjoyed his life with a family that loved him.
After serving in the U.S Army in Korea during the Vietnam era, he had been a carpenter and a boat builder, but then a girlfriend surprised him with a ski vacation to Vail, Colorado, that lasted for the next twenty-five years. He made his home in Colorado where he met the love of his life, Pat Gayler, and lived an enviable life working as a ski instructor for Vail.
When he retired, he and Pat returned to Dallas to live out the rest of their lives among a family that will miss them dearly.
Funeral services will be held privately. Arrangements by Harold C. Snowdon Funeral Home, Inc., Shavertown.