Transportation industry veteran passes away

NEPTUNE, N.J. — Thomas Gallagher, father of Student Transportation Inc. Chairman and CEO Denis Gallagher, passed away at the Jersey Shore University Medical Center here on Jan. 30. He was 82.

Thomas Gallagher had been a consultant for Student Transportation of America since 1999. (Denis founded the school bus contractor company in 1997.)

Thomas was founder of Coast Cities Coaches, which he owned from 1946 to 1987, when he sold to Laidlaw. He worked for Laidlaw from 1987 to 1999.

"He loved the bus industry and spent his entire adult life devoted to his work," said Karin Falkinburg, manager of internal communications at Student Transportation Inc. She noted that even as Gallagher's health failed, he had his caregiver drive him to work and didn't stop coming into the office until he was 81.

Gallagher led an active life outside of the transportation industry. He was a 50-year member of the Rotary Club in Point Pleasant, N.J., a communicant of Saint Elizabeth Roman Catholic Church in Avon, N.J., where he was a head usher and a member of the Holy Name Society, and troop master of a local Boy Scout troop for 40 years.