In Memoriam: Robert (Bob) G. Gallaghar

1924-2014

by Casper Sun, CHP, and Todd Mobley

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To view the HPS History Committee interview with Bob Gallaghar, click here.

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Robert (Bob) G. Gallaghar, CHP, CIH, CSP, CHHM, PE, passed away at his Dagsboro, Delaware (Indian River Acres) home on Saturday, 26 July 2014. He was a graduate of Stanford University and also completed training at Hahnemann Medical College and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Bob was one of about 50 people who received an Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) fellowship in 1947, studying health physics under Karl Morgan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Commissioned as an officer of the U.S. Public Health Service, Bob taught health physics to many state health officials as part of the "Atoms for Peace" program during the early 1950s. He helped write part of the original Radiological Health Handbook, which was first available in 1952. Hundreds of health physics students were trained using that handbook. It has been reprinted several times and became a prime health physics resource throughout the world. Nowadays one can only find it on eBay.

In 1950 Bob took the opportunity to establish a forum for radiation users by founding the Cincinnati Radiation Society (CRS), which later became a chapter of the Health Physics Society (HPS). After succeeding in founding the CRS, in 1952, Bob urged Karl Morgan to organize the HPS. Bob was elected to be the first HPS treasurer and served three consecutive years (1956–1959).

In 1952 Bob worked with Eugene L. Saenger, MD, at the Cincinnati General Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, to provide emergency treatment and decontamination of workers, including those exposed in a radium accident that involved 287 people. Two years later, after testimony as an expert in federal court for assessing radioactive contamination as a compensable casualty insurance claim, Bob became the first professional health physicist hired by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company to help provide nuclear liability insurance to the nuclear power industry. He worked with Robley Evans of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and taught at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. Later, he joined Niel Wald on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh as an adjunct assistant professor.

Upon Merrill Eisenbud's recommendation, Bob joined Nuclear Science & Engineering Corporation in 1960 as the radiation safety officer. Bob recognized the corporation's urgent needs and implemented a quality assurance program for bioassay and instituted environmental radioactivity analyses as a preoperational baseline. His research on radiological decontamination techniques and environmental radioactivity monitoring earned him a life membership in the prestigious honorary research society Sigma Xi.

On 26 September 1962, Bob founded Applied Health Physics, Inc. (AHP), operating the company successfully until his passing. Over the years, Bob provided radiological consulting for federal, state, and local regulatory agencies, insurance loss prevention, accident investigation, and expert-witness cases and has been the member of 12 corporate boards of directors including industry, hospitals, and technical societies. While active with AHP, Bob served as a member of a scientific delegation to the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on decontamination and radioactive waste management at Chernobyl. He was also instrumental in establishing several other companies, including Venture, Inc., Hospital Safety, Inc., Decontamination International, Inc., and Applied Health International, Inc. He published numerous scientific and professional papers.

Bob served as president or officer in four HPS chapters and was honored with life membership in the Western Pennsylvania Chapter. Bob was also a member of the American Nuclear Society, American Industrial Hygiene Association, and American Society of Safety Engineers. Bob was a certified health physicist (CHP), a certified industrial hygienist (CIH), a certified safety professional (CSP), a registered professional engineer (PE), and a certified hazardous materials manager (CHMM). In 2007 the HPS presented Bob with its Founders Award at the 52^nd HPS Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon.

Truly, Bob was a legend as both a health physics and an industrial hygiene pioneer. Bob devoted 60 productive years to promoting radiological and environmental health and safety in scientific research, industry, and medicine. Casper Sun recalls conducting a series of innovative studies to determine the need to control the burgeoning use of nanomaterial in commercial and medical markets. Bob's valuable professional experiences helped to answer questions about risks and how to design environmental health and safety controls for nanotechnology and nanomaterial applications, especially those involving radioactive materials.

Most important of all, he had a wonderful personality, excellent professional ethics, and boundless energy and was a fountain of knowledge. Robert G. Gallaghar was a true pioneer of health physics and industrial hygiene. He is survived by his son and four daughters.