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Thomas A. 'Tom' Gallagher San Francisco, CA QCWA # 14194 Chapter 11 |
It is with great sadness that I report Tom Gallagher N6RA died on September 1, 2021, from complications related to Parkinson’s Disease. He was two weeks short of his 79th birthday on September 15. He died quietly in his sleep at home in Santa Barbara, California.
Tom started out as a Short-Wave Listener in grade school and began his ham radio career at 13 with the novice call KN4DRO. At that time, he became the youngest ham radio operator in the state of Florida. By 15 years old, he was an Extra Class ham with the K4DRO call. His passion for radio lasted nearly 65 years. By the time he left high school in Coral Gables, Florida, he was a well-known traffic handler and DXer with 145 confirmed countries.
Tom majored in Electrical Engineering at Tulane and was a member of the ham radio club there. He was also one of the founders of WTUL (550 AM), the campus radio station, where he hosted an “oldies” show. At that time, Tom also worked as a part-time DJ on the classical radio station WWMT in New Orleans. After graduation, Tom moved to Washington, DC, where he worked days as a patent examiner, specializing in cathode ray technology, while studying patent law at night at George Washington University. He received the JD degree in 1968. After graduation, Tom went to work for the Communications Satellite Corporation as a patent attorney. While there, Tom was recruited by the patent firm, Limbach & Limbach. In September of 1969, Tom and Tina Gallagher joined the firm and moved to San Francisco.
Those early years in Tom’s career were busy with a new house on a hill in San Francisco complete with a 72 ft tower and a stack of monobander antennas. Tom rapidly filled in his DXCC totals and became known for his presence in the pileups and contest logs. The Gallagher house became a common place for hams from everywhere to visit.
Tom was the patent attorney for Dolby Labs and did copyright work for Lucasfilm and other tech firms. He wrote the patent for the 8080 microcontroller.
In 2010, Tom moved to Santa Barbara. He eventually retired in 2014 from the patent law profession. His ham radio activity during the last days of his life was from the UCSB radio club station (W6RFU) or from his small station at his home QTH, which was limited to hidden wire antennas. He lived in Santa Barbara with Laura, N6LRA, until his death.
Tom was a member of the ARRL (Life), CWops (Life) #109, FOC #1444, A1-Ops, DXCC (368 mixed), PVRC (former member), Northern California Contest Club to list a few. Among the calls he held were K4DRO, W6NUT, N6RA, EA6/N6RA, FP/N6RA, 5W1RA, FG0FOO, FG0FOO/FS, VP2ERA, N6RA/V44 and VP2E/N6RA. His other hobbies included running, traveling, tennis, photography, audio design, jazz, and competitive jitterbug and swing dancing.
