John King Galleher, Jr.

JOHN “JACK” KING GALLEHER JR

December 21, 1935 – June 25,2025

Please click here to view the Live Streamed Funeral Service for Mr. Galleher.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Jack Galleher on June 25, 2025 at the age of 89. He was a beloved husband of Mary for 64 years, father, grandfather, brother, and friend who will be deeply missed by all who knew him.

Jack’s greatest treasure and joy in life was his faith and relationship with the Lord, and the love of his family and friends.

Jack was born on December 21,1935 in Springfield, Massachusetts, to John King Galleher Sr and Elizabeth Morse Galleher, the second of four children. Jack grew up in Springfield, Long Island, and later Connecticut along with siblings, Betty, Mary and Rick. Jack’s life was shaped by his passion for learning how things worked and also how they could be improved. His mother said that Jack was a very curious child, and he would pry apart every mechanical toy he had to see what made it work. No one was surprised when, at 19, he became the youngest field engineer, servicing shipboard radars for Sperry Gyroscope company. Jack taught himself the necessary skills for each position he had, including celestial navigation to work for a company making star trackers for military aircraft. While on an assignment in Texas, he learned to fly, bought a light plane and completely refurbished it. When that assignment ended in December, he flew it up to Long Island to prepare for the next job. Jack’s sister invited Mary to join their family on New Year’s Eve 1959, where she and Jack met, started dating and fell in love. He married Mary, the love of his life, on October 1,1960. In the first 6 years of their marriage, Jack’s work assignments necessitated 6 major moves around the country including a year at Cape Canaveral for the space program. They settled in Bowie, Maryland in 1966 where they happily raised six children and became involved in the community and Saint Pius X.

While living here in Bowie, Jack worked for a variety of companies as a reliability engineer including Westinghouse, Rixon, Bradford, ERC, and finished the last 20 yrs of his career at Goddard Space Flight Center. One of Jack’s proudest career accomplishments was his reliability work on the Small Explorer (SAMPEX) mission. The minimum mission requirement was one year, with a goal of three, launched in 1992, it worked perfectly and collected all its desired data for 18 years. After being decommissioned in 2010, still working, it was turned over to Bowie State College and used to teach Satellite operators how to handle an actual satellite. Before retiring in 2008, Jack was proud to have worked on the reliability aspect of the James Webb Space Telescope which eventually launched in December 2021 to everyone’s delight.

Jack was a faithful member of St. Pius X parish for more than 60 years. His faith was the center of his life and he was generous with his time and talents.

Over the years he was a Eucharist minister, involved in Marriage Encounter, Charismatic Prayer Group, RCIA, a CCD teacher, and a CHIRP retreat leader. One of the most meaningful ministries was sharing their faith weekly for 30 years with the inmates at PG County Correctional Facility. In 2014, Jack and Mary became members of a Small Group faith community of married couples. For the past 11 years they have companioned one another on life’s journey and ministered to the community together.

Jack, a true “Jack” of all trades, never met a broken item he couldn’t or wouldn’t try to fix. He was always inventing helpful gadgets. When his first daughter was born, he designed a baby monitor so he and Mary wouldn’t sleep through her crying. He earned the title,” My Daddy can fix anything “ which he proudly wore. He kept everything in the house running smoothly, installed appliances, remodeled the kitchen and always kept 2 cars running. It was his joy to fix things for both family and friends. Jack and Mary converted a work van into a camper van that could sleep 8 people to take the family on an epic 6 week cross country road trip.

Family summers always included at least a week of camping on Assateague Island, enjoying the surf, sand, campfires and incredible starry nights. What started out with two sites with some cousins, grew over the next 50 years to 8 adjoining sites to contain all the kids, grandchildren and their many friends and even great grandchildren. Dad’s greatest joy was seeing that legacy of enjoying God’s creation passed on. When Jack retired, he and Mary traveled more extensively and had the privilege of seeing many beautiful countries of the world. However camping in the Adirondacks, enjoying the fall foliage, remained a popular Anniversary trip.

Jack will be missed by his beloved wife Mary, his children MaryBeth (Hugh) Blocker, John (Carolyn) Galleher , Debbie (Bob) Smith, Kathy Galleher, Michael (Jodi) Galleher and Christie (Fred) Hicks as well as grandchildren Woody (Nikki), Karen (Trey) , Jeremy, Sylvia, Christian, Matthew, Jordan, Evie and Xander and great grandchildren Joanna, Jace, Jack and Hugo.

When Jack was asked about his idea of perfect happiness, he said “My idea of perfect happiness is being in Heaven with the Lord and all generations of my family, our friends, and many of the men we ministered to in prison ministry”

A viewing will be held at Beall Funeral in Bowie from 6-8 pm on July 2nd, and a funeral mass will be held at 1PM on July 3rd at St. Pius X church in Bowie followed by a repast. Friends and family are invited to attend to celebrate Jack’s life. Burial will be private.

In lieu of flowers please consider donating to one of the following charities on John's behalf: So Others May Eat (SOME), Food For the Poor, or Matthew 25: Ministries.