Tom Gallagher (diplomat)

Gallagher was born on September 11, 1940, in Manhattan, New York City.^[1] His father was a chauffeur and his mother, an Irish-born maid.^[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.^[1][3] He later earned a master's degree from the University of Southern California.^[1]

Gallagher served in the United States Peace Corps in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 1962 to 1965.^[1][4]

Gallagher became a United States Foreign Service officer in 1965.^[4] He served in Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, until he was appointed as consul general in Guayaquil, Ecuador.^[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.^[4] He was the first Foreign Service officer to come out as gay,^[1] and he would have been unable to obtain a security clearance.^[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.^[3]

Gallagher served in the Foreign Service again from 1994 to 2005. He was stationed in Eritrea, Sudan and Europe.^[3] At a 2012 event for the Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton honored his legacy as the first openly gay Foreign Service officer.^[3]

Gallagher was married twice. He first married Carolyn Worrell in 1966,^[1] and they divorced in 1972. In 2017, he married Amin Dulkumoni, a Goldman Sachs employee.^[1]

A resident of Tinton Falls, Gallagher died on July 8, 2018, in Wall Township, New Jersey.^[1]