CUMBERLAND — Dominican Father Edward H. Gallagher, 100, died Nov. 19 at Mount St. Rita Health Care Centre. He was the oldest living and longest serving member of the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph, and was assigned to the Dominican Friars’ community at the Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas at Providence College.
Baptized Edward Francis Gallagher in Providence, he was the son of the late Michael Gallagher and Bridget (McGovern)?Gallagher. He graduated from La Salle Academy in 1926, and attended Providence College from 1926-1927 and 1928-1929.
In 1929 he entered the Dominican Friars’ novitiate at St. Rose Priory in Springfield, KY, where he received his religious name Henry Maria. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 10, 1936 by Archbishop Ameleto G. Cicognani, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, at St. Dominic Church in Washington, D.C.
Father Gallagher received a bachelor of arts degree from the Dominican House of Studies in River Forest, Ill. in 1933, and also studied at St. Joseph Priory, Somerset, Ohio, and the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. He earned a Master of Science degree in mathematics from The Catholic University of America and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Cincinnati.
He joined the Providence College mathematics faculty in 1939, and taught for 37 years. He served as chairman of the department from 1966-1970 and retired in 1976. Providence College awarded him an honorary master’s degree in 1958 and an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1965.
From 1976-2004 Father Gallagher was assigned to St. Stephen Priory, Dover, Mass.. He served as subprior from 1985-1988, and worked in hospice ministry from 1987-1988. In 2005, he became a resident of Steere House in Providence, and then moved to the Jean Jugan Residence in Pawtucket.
Father Gallagher is survived by a nephew, John Loughran of Windsor Locks, Conn; and two nieces, Patricia Loughran Gustafson and Margaret Loughran Papini, both of Warwick.
A Mass of Christian Burial was concelebrated Nov. 24 in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary at the Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas. Burial was in the Dominican Friars’ Cemetery on the campus.
