Joseph Gallagher

Joseph D. Gallagher of Dorchester passed away in the wee hours of the morning October 16, 2018 at his home in Hanover Township. Funeral services were held Friday, October 19 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Hanover, with Fr. Mark Osterhaus officiating. Burial with military graveside rites was at St. Mary’s Hanover Cemetery, both in rural Waukon.

His last days in his white farm house, his home for most of his 91 years, was filled with the love of his adoring wife, Inez, his 11 children and their spouses, multiple grandchildren, his brother, Donald, and extended family and friends.

Joe was born during the high heat of summer July 22, 1927 to Maurice and Estella (Dahlen) Gallagher. He was the fifth of nine children. From the very beginning, family, faith and farming shaped Joe’s life.

In the mid-1930s, due to the Great Depression, Maurice moved his family from the hilltop farm which he built above St. Mary’s Hanover Church to the farm where Joe resided the rest of his life. That farm and the beautifully-simple country church, and the faith held within, would serve as a guiding element in Joe’s life - from baptism to burial.

On the new farm, little Joe was his father’s shadow, learning all the skills a farmer needed to be self-sufficient and thrive. His father kept to the traditional farming methods, preferring the quiet steadfastness of his draft horses to the growl of tractors. Joe, however, longed for a stable filled with tractors.

He showed an early aptitude for mechanical engines and took on the task of “fixing things” around the farm. His skills served him well later as an adult when Mike Connor and Earl Peyton hired him to work at the Ford Garage in Waukon. His work in the garage earned him the moniker “Body-man Joe” and his ability to rebuild vehicles earned him a famed reputation throughout the countryside.

He walked to a one-room school in Hanover for his first eight grades, sometimes without shoes and with only a piece of bread spread with lard for his lunch. In 1942 Joe began his studies at Divine Word Seminary in Epworth. His fellow seminarians remarked on Joe’s multiple skills - from basketball to poetry, but most of all, his Irish gift of gab. During his time at Epworth, he continued to tinker and even built and flew multiple model airplanes.

He later transferred to the Divine Word Seminary at East Troy, WI. Joe thrived in the nature-filled seminary located on the shores of Lake Beulah. His knowledge of the church deepened including learning Latin - which he confidently quoted in his later years. Always a lover of Roman and Monastic history, his studies gave this Iowa farm boy exposure to history, cultures and languages. The experience left an indelible mark. He always encouraged his family to “keep the faith,” especially in difficult times.

The Good Lord tested Joe’s faith when he was called home from East Troy in the spring of 1946 to say good-bye to his gravely ill father who died that May. Joe, just shy of his 19th birthday, joined with his siblings to manage the farm along with their mother.

August 11, 1950 Joe enlisted in the United States Air Force and embarked on a specialized and elite career in the service. Because of his ear for languages and aptitude for analytics, the Air Force sent him to teletype school followed by cryptography school at Scott Air Force Base near St. Louis, MO. During the nascent stages of the Cold War, Joe was assigned to the 6910th Mobile Radio Squadron in Darmstadt, Germany. He was selected by Air Force leadership to supervise a dozen highly-skilled technicians at the 6910th Security Group Headquarters in Landsberg, Germany. There he analyzed and encrypted Russian communications and transmitted this intelligence to the Air Force, NATO and the National Security Agency in Washington D.C. His work intercepting Russian communications was a critical component to the U.S. military’s Cold War efforts. Joe had achieved the rank of Staff Sergeant when his time in Germany was cut short due to his mother’s death in May 1954.

He was offered a position at the newly formed National Security Agency (NSA) to continue his career at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. With an offer from the Pentagon and his discharge papers in hand, Joe had to make a choice: the Pentagon or the Iowa farm.

On the day of his discharge, standing in the hot Texas sun outside of Lackland Air Force Base, he decided to catch the bus to Pueblo, CO. His plan - make a one-day sojourn to visit his brother, Father Maurice Gallagher, who was assigned to Sacred Heart Cathedral. That decision set the course for the rest of his life. His brother, busy ministering to the needs of his parishioners, encouraged Joe to spend the afternoon with one of his favorite families, the Huertas. That day’s visit with Inez Sylvia Huerta, Gregorio and Helen’s oldest daughter, was love at first site.

Over the next several months, he wore a path across the Great Plains on frequent trips to Pueblo, driving a different car each trip courtesy of Mike Connor. He was smitten by that dark-haired beauty. Joe and Inez married April 30, 1955 at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Pueblo, CO in a ceremony performed by his brother,

Father Maurice. Joe took his bride to the family farm in Iowa, where their belief in faith and family became the cornerstone of their life. Together they created a successful farm. They raised buildings, crops, animals and, most importantly, kids. Many, many kids - where the girls outnumbered the boys, three-to-one.

Joe’s passion for history and politics and his Irish gift of gab earned him the title of Tree-Stump Philosopher by his very good friend and neighbor, poet Gerald Burke. Many of the world’s problems were solved over the splitting block at Joe’s farm. He loved his neighbors. He loved his church. He loved his Hanover City Council. This lifelong Democrat was active in the National Farmers Organization, the American Legion, the Catholic Family Movement, and the St. Mary’s Hanover Cemetery Association.

Joe was a mechanical genius, though he claimed his work grinding valves or fixing Model T magnetos was “simple enough”. There wasn’t a machine or an antique car he couldn’t repair. Of all his mechanical feats, only rewiring engines proved a challenge. Due to his color-blindness, he couldn’t tell the red wires from the green. He’d just ask one of his kids to point out the different colors.

Joe was happiest when his household burst with energy. He loved to hear his children sing and play their instruments. In his later years, his self-taught piano and harmonica playing became even better. He loved the once-a-year smorgasbord supper at Quandahl’s Red Owl - a special family treat reserved for when the last crop of hay was baled. It was the one meal out of the year that Inez didn’t have to cook. He relished in the simple pleasures of life and the gifts gathered from the farm - sweet corn, pear preserves, lefse, “slickerdowns” and Inez’s homemade tortillas. Rainy days were best enjoyed restoring ancient vehicles in his Hanover Blacksmith Shop and walking the woods with his faithful dog, “Votch”.

God’s gift of a long life, of many years on this earth, comes with a price. Over the years, Joe bid good-bye to many of his dear friends and family members. Not a day went by that he didn’t think of those that he had lost. But as the poet Austin Smith wrote, “you worked so hard, you were so gentle, so kind, you get everything you thought you’d lost forever; by dying we lose nothing, by dying we get it all back.”

It is fitting that a man who dedicated his life to farming and was so connected to the rhythms of nature should pass during the harvest season. He worked his entire life - planting corn and oats, cutting thistles, sawing logs, milking cows - mending, growing and nurturing. His harvest time has come. Now Joe, go and reap the rewards of a life well-lived. And, to quote his iconic prayer before meals… “Good Pope John, bless us; St. Isidore, pray for us; Lord, give peace to this home and everyone in it”.

Joe is survived by his wife of nearly 64 years, Inez; 11 children: Becky (John) Swadner of Minneapolis, MN, Joe Jr. of Decorah, Laura (Kris) Sutter of Manchester, Kim Kieffer of Broomfield, CO, Judy (Brian) Vilbrandt of San Diego, CA, Erin of Coralville, Lisa (Arthur) McGraw of Meridianville, AL, Vickie (Tom) Arneson of Evansville, WI, Maury (Tina) of Amana, Jonathan (Susanne) of Marion and Jennifer (Cesar) Pino of Sun Prairie, WI; 27 grandchildren; four step-grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; seven step-great-grandchildren; his brother, Don, of Bossier City, LA; his Colorado family; and many nieces, nephews and friends. He was preceded in death by his parents, Maurice and Estella (Dahlen) Gallagher; his brothers Vernon, Father Maurice, Tom and Bob; his sisters, Dorothy (Dot) Deeny,  Idella Bresnahan and Karen Sweet; his infant daughter, Maria Ann; his son-in-law, David Kieffer; and his granddaughter, Erika Nicole Christensen.

Honorary casketbearers were Joe’s grandchildren. Casketbearers were his sons-in-law and a grandson, Cameron Keiffer, for David Kieffer, deceased.

Online condolences may be left at www.martinfunerals.com.