[1] He grew up in the servant's quarters of a home in Deal, New Jersey and attended Red Bank Catholic High School.
[2] Gallagher graduated from Monmouth University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 1962.
[3] He returned to the United States, where he served in California and Washington, D.C.[3] Gallagher quit the Foreign Service after he came out as gay in 1976.
[3] Instead, he returned to civilian life and worked as a social worker for HIV/AIDS patients in Los Angeles, California from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s.
[1] A resident of Tinton Falls, Gallagher died on July 8, 2018, in Wall Township, New Jersey.