Mountain Democrat News Obituary

http://www.mtdemocrat.com/story.php?id=901.11

William K. Gallagher, Ph.D., 68, died April 4, 2008, in Alameda, Calif. A speaker and an author, William was a 15-year member of the community in Diamond Springs.

Born Jan. 27, 1940, in Los Angeles, to his parents Leonard W. Gallagher and Sally Roberts Gallagher, William “Bill” Gallagher spent his early years in Los Angeles and graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1958. Befriending many of the entertainment industry elite of the time, Bill sang with an early incarnation of the famous group Jan and Dean and wrote a few of their songs. From an early age Bill was gifted with language and passionate about world cultures and travel.

Following high school, Bill attended BYU, Utah, where he earned a BA in Political Science and Language in 1964. During this time, he also served a mission in Brazil for the LDS Church from 1960-62. Bill then attended the University of Utah Law School in 1964 before starting a career with the CIA that spanned over a decade during the Vietnam War. During this time, he also worked for New York Life Insurance in both Los Angeles and Honolulu, and later for Beneficial Life Insurance in Honolulu. These positions provided him with the means to pursue his passion for travel and to raise his family internationally. They lived throughout the world, predominantly in Switzerland, Spain, and Israel. In each location he enrolled his children in local schools to learn the language and culture.

Pursuing his passion for education, Bill earned a master’s degree in Linguistics from the University of Hawaii in 1971 and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Walden University, Florida, in 1976. Bill was also a professor at BYU, Hawaii, from 1973-77, and at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, from 1977-79.

In the 1980s Bill was back in the U.S. working for Control Data Corp. He soon founded a computer education company, Computers Simplified Inc., whose clients included many Fortune 500 companies. He was featured in the Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine and on several television news segments for his fast success.

Bill later led seminars on his “mind map” design and the psychology of marketing. In 1992 he authored the New York Times best seller Guerrilla Selling, and spent the next decade leading Guerrilla Selling seminars for businesses around the world. During this time, he continued his focus on sales and marketing, teaching at California State University Sacramento, in 1998 and earning his MBA in 1999.

Bill’s passions included surfing, sailing, skiing, theology, travel, language, fly-fishing, music, reading and writing. But his main focus in life was his family.

Bill is survived by his father, Leonard, his sister, Laurie Brown, his children, David Kier, William Jr., Robert, Thomas, Sara, and Nathaniel, and by seven grandchildren.

A memorial was held in his honor on April 11, at the Temple Israel Sanctuary in Alameda, Calif. His ashes were scattered in the San Francisco Bay, where he loved to sail with his children.