Joan Gallagher

Our beloved mother Joan Shirley Greer Gallagher, 87, of Orem, Utah, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, August 30, 2017, due to incidents of old age in American Fork. She was born on November 22, 1929, in San Bernardino, California, to Carr Francis and Margaret Susie Meikle Greer.

Joan spent her young childhood in San Bernardino, California; Winslow, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico and moved to Provo, Utah, when she was a young teen when her father got a job as an engineer for BYU. She graduated from BY High School and then Brigham Young University where she studied Elementary Education. While at BYU, she was active in Cougarettes and the Nautilus Social Unit.

As a young woman, she served an LDS mission to the Eastern States Mission spending much of her time in Pennsylvania.

Joan was married in the Salt Lake Temple to Robert Gallagher in 1953.  The couple lived in Berkeley California; Price, Utah and then moved to Orem, Utah. She has five children: Kim (Paul) Blanchard, Craig (Leslie) Gallagher, Lori (Leon) Bird, Eric (Lisa) Gallagher and Shawn (Ann) Gallagher.  She has 20 grandchildren: Heather Blanchard (Wihongi), Ryan Blanchard, Gregg Blanchard and Laurel Blanchard (Farrer). Kovi Gallagher, Casey Gallagher, Cory Michael Gallagher, Alexis Gallagher and Kyle Gallagher. Kendall Bird, Sarah Bird (Joseph) and Tyler Bird. Kyle Gallagher, Anne-Marie Gallagher (Flygare), Andrew Gallagher, Mark Gallagher and Bryant Gallagher.  Shawn Gallagher, Michael Gallagher and Connor Gallagher. She has many great grandchildren.

After many years of teaching elementary school in Berkeley, California; Orem and Pleasant Grove, Utah, Joan earned a Master’s Degree in English as a Second Language from BYU.  She helped start an ESL program at UVU and loved her students from around the world, often inviting them to her home for holidays.  After retirement from UVU, she taught English in Japan and Lithuania.

The most important things in Joan’s life were the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Savior, and her family.  She was a passionate genealogist and had sent tens of thousands of names into the temple and loved doing the ordinances herself. She loved to travel and has been to, at least, 29 countries and all of the states in the Union. She was also a lifelong learner and was always reading, one of her famous sayings was “I am reading the best book!” She loved and taught her children to love music, art and ballet.

She is preceded in death by her parents and her sister June Greer Brown.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 2, 2017, at the LDS Chapel on 50 South 750 West in Orem, Utah.  A viewing prior to the services will be held at 9:30 – 10:30 a.m. at the church.  A viewing will also be held at the same church from 6 to 8 p.m. the night before the service.

Interment will be in the Highland City Cemetery.

Condolences for the family may be left on this site.