Raymond Joseph Gallagher

Raymond Joseph Gallagher was an American clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the third bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana from 1965 to 1982.

Biography

Raymond Gallagher was born on November 19, 1912, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Hugh and Ella Gallagher. He was educated at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish School and Cathedral Latin High School in Chardon, Ohio. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio, in 1934, and attended St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1934 to 1939.

Gallagher was ordained to the priesthood in Cleveland by Archbishop Joseph Schrembs for the Diocese of Cleveland on March 25, 1939. After his ordination, Gallagher served as a curate at St. Colman Parish in Cleveland. In 1944, he enlisted in the United States Navy Chaplain Corps, serving there until his discharge in 1946. In 1948, Gallagher earned a Master of Social Work degree from Loyola University Chicago and became assistant director of diocesan Catholic Charities.
Pope Pius XII named Gallagher a papal chamberlain in 1955. Between 1958 and 1959, he was a member of US President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Commission on Child Welfare, becoming chair of the White House Conference on Children and Youth in 1960. He served as general secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Charities from 1961 to 1965.

On June 21, 1965, Gallagher was appointed the third bishop of Lafayette in Indiana by Pope Paul VI. He received his episcopal consecration at the Cathedral of St. [John the Evangelist (Cleveland)|Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist] in Cleveland on August 11, 1965, from Archbishop Egidio Vagnozzi, with Bishops Leo Byrne and Clarence Issenmann serving as co-consecrators.
On October 26, 1982, Pope [John Paul II] accepted Gallagher's resignation as bishop of Lafayette in Indiana. Raymond Gallagher died in Muncie, Indiana, on March 7, 1991, at age 78.