Earl P. Galleher Jr. ’48

Earl died Dec. 7, 2024, at age 98 in Towson, Md., just eight days after the death of his wife, Martha.

Born in Baltimore and a graduate of Gilman School, Earl earned a B.A. in biology at Princeton, graduating in June 1949. He was a member of Cap and Gown and played tennis. In 1945-46, he served as a Navy medical corpsman at Bethesda Naval Hospital, alongside classmates Jim Neely and Bob Welch. “I shared his warm bedside manner treating the wounded sailors and Marines from Okinawa,” recalls Jim.

Earl earned a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1953, part of a large group of Princetonians who remained close for years. After interning at JHU, he completed his residency in general surgery and urology at Duke University.

From 1958 to 1980, Earl was an associate professor of urology at the University of Maryland Medical School Hospital, where he participated in the first kidney transplant at the university. He subsequently worked as a surgeon at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center and retired in 1991.

Earl married Martha in 1954. “A romance full of dancing and laughter that lasted the rest of their lives,” said son Watson in Earl’s obituary. The pair were married for 70 years.

Earl is survived by daughter Gai Kyhos; sons Watson and Earl P. III, eight grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. Son Henry died in 2019.

In our 50th-reunion yearbook, Earl noted: “I have been blessed in every way with an extremely fortunate life,” citing extremely close friendships with classmates Tom Langfitt, George Ferris, Dooner Wilson, and Bob Welch. “For over 50 years we have had happy times together and been of support to each other through some difficult days.”