Jerold Irving Gallacher passed away on June 25, 2026 from complications relating to advanced age and dementia. He was 84. He is survived by his seven children – DeAnn Starkey (Darrin), Michael Gallacher, David Gallacher (Heidi), Jeffrey Gallacher (Alethea), Cheri Edgington, Jody Stout (David), and Richard Gallacher (Madi) – fourteen grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his ex-wife, Jeanne Woolman Gallacher, and younger brother, Robert Gallacher. Jerry has now been reunited with his dear parents (Cyril Irving Gallacher and Ruth Hardy Gallacher), his younger brother (Bruce Gallacher), and many other beloved friends and family that preceded Jerry in death.
Jerry was born on August 16, 1941, in Salt Lake City, Utah and was raised in the Sugar House area. He was the oldest of three brothers. He grew up in an idyllic neighborhood on Berkley Street, reminiscent of those 1950s neighborhoods from Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best. He grew up attending the Parleys 1st Ward in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints near Sugar House Park.
Upon graduating from Highland High School, Jerry served a two-year mission for the Church, where he labored to spread the good news of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Jerry was assigned to serve in the North British Mission, which was later split to form the Scottish-Irish Mission. Jerry served the whole of his mission in Scotland, the land from which his grandfather, James Izatt Gallacher, originally immigrated in 1869. While serving in Scotland, Jerry came to love everything about Scotland – the people, the culture, and the food… although he never quite mastered the Scottish brogue (or “burr”). Alba gu bràth!
Returning from his mission, Jerry studied at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Communications and where he met and married Jeanne Marie Woolman in 1967. They settled into life in the Millcreek and Holladay areas outside Salt Lake City, welcoming their oldest daughter, Deann, in 1968, and living most of his adult life in the Olympus Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where he served in various capacities, particularly as an administrative clerk.
Professionally, Jerry wore many different hats throughout his life. He started his career in broadcast communications, including volunteering his technical skills over several years to help broadcast the Church’s semi-annual General Conferences. He later shifted into bookkeeping and accounting, largely working as a self-employed consultant to help dozens of local businesses maintain their books. He also used these skills to help people prepare their taxes. After retiring from full-time work, he turned into a full-time volunteer, helping drive people in his community and apartment complex to the grocery store, to doctor’s appointments, and to just about any place that they needed. Jerry was always happy to help… always with a smile.
When he was not busy helping people, you could usually find him tinkering – usually with computers. He was an early adopter of technology, having cut his teeth as a teen on ham radios in the 1950s and later building from scratch his own personal computer in the late-1970s. Sadly, technology quickly outstripped Jerry’s ability, and at the end of his life he found he had trouble even navigating his cell phone (as happens to most of us, it would seem). Throughout the 1980s, Jerry also helped his brothers (Robert and Bruce) build from the ground up a family cabin in Midway, Utah. “The Cabin” later became a frequent vacation spot for the brothers and the whole of the Gallacher family, with Heber Valley occupying a special place in Jerry’s heart for the rest of his life.
Jerry lived his life trying to make people smile. Unfortunately, this often took the form of a good (or bad?) pun. Still, whether good or bad, he always tried. In the end, and with all apologies to the poet Robert Frost, Jerry chose the road death traveled.
The family expresses our sincere thanks to the staff and caregivers at Riverway Assisted Living and Memory Care in South Jordan, Utah, who helped Jerry in the final years of his life as his dementia fully took hold, as well as Julie Byland with Care Advocates of Utah, who helped Jerry along the way.
Funeral services will be held on July 11, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. at Larkin Mortuary, 260 E. South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah. A viewing will be held at 9:30 a.m., immediately preceding the funeral services. You may watch the service online through Zoom by clicking on the "Watch Service" button above. The service will be followed by a gravesite service at the Salt Lake City Cemetery, where he will be buried near his dear parents. With one final pun to honor Jerry’s memory (and, oh, how he loved his puns), we note that Jerry always thought the last thing he needed was a burial plot. Turns out he was right.