John Storey Gallagher, M. D., 70, of Fernandina Beach, Florida died on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, in Jacksonville.
Born on February 7, 1954, in Tampa, Florida to the late Francis John Gallagher and Mary Storey Gallagher, John grew up in Tampa and graduated from Jesuit High School in that city in 1972. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 1976 with a degree in Biology/Pre-Medicine, John earned an M. D. degree from the University of South Florida Medical School in 1979. He did a medical internship and pediatrics residency at the University of South Carolina Medical Center in Charleston, and then a fellowship in the relatively new field of Neonatology at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville in the mid-1980s. John was Board Certified in Neonatology, and he practiced this specialty with great skill and distinction for several decades, in Sarasota, Florida and Roanoke, Virginia.
In the 1990s John began a new career as a flight surgeon and officer in the Florida Air National Guard, rising to the rank of colonel and commanding a medical unit with numerous physicians, surgeons, nurses and skilled technicians under his command.
In Charlottesville, in 1985, John married Teri Woodsmall Gallagher, the love of his life, who survives him. He is also survived by his sister Eva Gallagher Schneidau and husband Wallace Schneidau, of Slidell, Louisiana and brothers Thomas Gallagher, of Holland, Michigan, and Michael Gallagher and wife Janet Meunier Gallagher, of Maryville, Tennessee. He is survived by eleven nieces and nephews and many grand-nieces and -nephews.
John’s siblings and nieces and nephews remember him as a man of enormous compassion and love, which he showed to any person experiencing pain or weakness. This compassion extended to animals as well, and John and Teri gave tender care to their pets. John’s friends and family remember him best for his wicked sense of humor. He could crack a joke at a moment’s notice. His sense of humor was dry, but it often brought people to tears. He even tried his hand at writing jokes for stand-up comedians. Warmth, approachability, enormous creative energy, joy in flying his own airplane, and above all genuine care for people in need—all these qualities will be remembered by John’s family.
The family would like to pay tribute to the loving care given to John in his last illness by Amelia and Willeen, his caregivers. They have truly been angels among us.
A funeral mass will be held Monday, April 8, 2024 at 11:00 AM at St. Francis Catholic Mission in Yulee. He will e laid to rest at Jacksonville National Cemetery at 1:00 PM that same day. Donations may be made in John’s memory to Tunnel to Towers Foundation t2t.org