Hugh F. Gallagher, Jr., family papers

Hugh F. Gallagher, Jr., born in 1916, was one of the first developers of suburban Newark, Delaware, and a respected realtor. He was active in many professional and civic activities as was his wife, Alice Pepper Gallagher.

Gallagher's family moved to Newark from Wilmington in 1926. He graduated from Newark High School in 1933 and received a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Delaware in 1937. Gallagher married Alice Pepper of Georgetown, Delaware on June 24, 1939. She was a 1936 graduate of Women's College at the University.

He briefly worked for Bethlehem Steel and, during World War II, at Baldwin Locomotive Works. From 1940 to 1951, Gallagher worked for his father as vice president for customer service at Union Park Motors, Inc. He left Union Park in 1951 to begin his own business. He founded Silverbrook Development, Inc., and began building houses in "Silverbrook," the first subdivision in Newark, along South College Avenue, Route 896.

After completing Silverbrook in 1955, he began developing "Oaklands" on 91 acres of land purchased from the Rathmell Wilson estate, west of Elkton Road. Gallagher donated five acres of land for the building of the Oaklands swimming pool. He retained the rights to deed restrictions on Oaklands houses until 1988 when he relinquished them to the new Oaklands Civic Association.

In 1961, he opened Hugh Gallagher Realtors at 74 East Main Street in Newark. A successful businessman, Gallagher was named Delaware Realtor of the Year in 1972. He sold the company to B. Garry Scott in 1979, but retained ownership of the Main Street building.

Gallagher was active in numerous civic and professional activities throughout his life. He served as president of the Greater Wilmington Board of Realtors, the Newark Country Club, the Newark Chamber of Commerce, the Parent-Teacher Association and the Lions Club. He also served on the boards of numerous other groups including the YMCA, Wilmington Trust Company, Newark Recreation Association, and the Delaware Association of Realtors.

He was also active in the University of Delaware Alumni Association. During the early 1960s the Gallaghers were one of several sponsors of Warner Hall, one of the University's womens' dormitories, as part of a program to improve students' poise and social graces. From 1978 until 1988, Hugh Gallagher served as alumni representative to the University Awards Committee. He was a Class of 1937 alumni delegate at several commencements as well as at the 1987 inauguration of University President Russell Jones.

Alice Pepper Gallagher graduated from Georgetown High School and, in 1936, from Women's College at the University of Delaware. She taught in the Caesar Rodney School District from 1936 to 1939, when she married.

She was active in numerous community activities, serving as president of the Newark New Century Club, chair of the Newark Cotillon, and on the local boards of the YMCA, AAUW, PTA, and Girl Scouts. She helped organize the Newark Cotillon, the Newark Symphony Society, and was a charter member of the Friends of the Newark Free Library and the Newark Historical Society. She was a senior guide at the Winterthur Museum from 1966 until 1982.

Mrs. Gallagher was also very active in the University of Delaware Alumni Association and received an Outstanding Alumni Award in 1974. She served on the Association's Board of Directors from 1967 until 1970. During this time she was chairman of the Alumni Hall Furnishing Committe which renovated the public areas of the building. She represented the Association on the Student Center Board of Directors from 1966 to 1970. She was the alumni member of the Ad Hoc Committee on the University's Blue and Gold Club and one of the charter directors when it opened in 1972. She served as a class or Association representative at several commencements and the inaugurations of two university presidents, Edward Arthur Trabant in 1969, and Russell Jones in 1987.

The Gallaghers had two daughters. Susan Gallagher Astarita graduated from Newark High School and, in 1963, from Randolph-Macon Women's College in Virginia. She earned a master's degree in comparative government at George Washington University.

Susan Gallagher was assistant producer of "Youth Wants to Know," a Washington-based public broadcasting show in the mid 1960s and worked on the 1968 campaign of Eugene McCarthy as press liaison. While director of public and community relations at Delaware Technical and Community College, she met and married Bruce Astarita. After time in Washington, D.C., they moved to Los Angeles where she worked as a writer at the Institute of Industrial Relations at UCLA and as a freelance writer specializing in disabled issues and travel. Astarita founded her own communications firm in 1977 and is a member of Women in Communications. She had one daugher, Alice.

Patricia Gallagher graduated from the Tower Hill School in 1963 and Connecticut College for Women in 1967. After time in Tunis on a student exchange program, she attended the Cours de Civilisation Française at the Sorbonne. She worked as the assistant to the fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune and wrote occasional columns for the Wilmington Morning News during the early 1970s.

In 1975, she began working for the Académie du Vin, a wine-tasting school. By 1985, she was director of the school. She married Gerard Gastaud and had two sons, Nicholas and Xavier.

Biographical information derived from the collection.