A Family Gives Thanks

Dear Scott and all the employees of The Elms,

We, the family of Howard Gallaway, would like to thank you and all of employees of The Elms and The Grove for your assistance, kindness and friendship to my father over the 10 years her resided there. I think all of you made these years a very enjoyable time for him. I think it takes a very special person to do this type of work, and we always felt you were all well suited for the occupation.

I hope I am lucky enough to have such a group in my old age!

Very Sincerely,

Brian Gallaway

Howard Murray Gallaway

1910-2010

Howard Gallaway died January 21st in San Carlos after a long happy life of good health. His grandparents, Charles and Elizabeth Gallaway, came west by covered wagon on the Oregon Trail. His maternal grandparents, the Murrays, came west to San Francisco via sailing ship during the Nevada silver boom. Howard was born in San Anselmo, California where his father was an electrician the AC/DC powerhouse for the Marin streetcar system, and worked on construction of the Marconi Transmitting Station at Bolinas. In 1915 Howard attended the Panama Pacific Exposition where he marveled with everyone else at the amazing aerial exploits of Lincoln Beachey and his amazing flying machine. He grew up in a small copper mining town of Thompson in Nevada, where his father was the chief electrician at the smelter. In 1923 the family moved to Reno, the birthplace of his mother, and home of all four of his grandparents. He graduated from the University of Nevada with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1933- the depth of the Great Depression. He married his college sweet heart, Marthine Solares (U of N class of 1934) in 1936. At the beginning of WWII Howard moved the family to California for a job at Joshua Hendy Iron Works (later to become Westinghouse) in Sunnyvale and they bought a house in San Carlos. Howard was a specialist in turbines and among other things worked on the designs and construction of steam engines in ships for the war effort. After the war he worked on turbines for the military's massive experimental wind tunnel at Tullahoma, Tennessee necessary for airplane designing at the beginning of the transition to the jet age.He spent the rest of his professional life with Westinghouse. Howard served 14 years on the San Carlos School Board. After retirement he enjoyed walking to the station and taking the train every Wednesday to lunch with his old Westinghouse buddies until the last couple years. He was a faithful member of St. Charles Catholic Parish in San Carlos for 70 years.

Howard is survived by his brother Allen in Reno and 5 of his 6 children, Heather Sterner (Paul) of San Francisco, Bruce (Penny) of Chico, Brian of Healdsburg, Kent (Elizabeth) of Ripton WI, and Kirk of Los Gatos also 8 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. Marthine died in 1999. They were married for 63 years.

Only his eyesight failed him in old age, while his memory remained vivid.

We greatly appreciate the friends, relatives, Westinghouse co-workers and the other residents at The Elms in San Carlos who assisted him in keeping active.

Our father had a profound appreciation for his family both preceding and succeeding him. He was an inventor, experimenter, tinkerer, woodsman, thinker, and builder. He had a fundamental honesty that made him a man of great character, and a curiosity that made him a life long learner. He will be missed by all the knew him.