Jack was a pioneer of the maritime environmental services industry and his contributions helped to define modern oil spill response. For four decades starting in the early 1970s, Jack was a dominant force in the management of the highest-profile spills and maritime environmental disasters in the world. During that time, Jack contributed to the development of many of the tools of the industry including the U.S. Navy’s inflatable oil boom, and held dozens of patents. Using his unprecedented experience, innovation, knowledge of maritime systems, and background as an admiralty and patent lawyer, Jack helped shape many regulations, developed and/or refined scores of oil spill tactics and tools, enabling responses to become increasingly more effective and safer for generations to come. He was the founding Director of the Center for Marine Environmental Protection at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and, later formed Gallagher Marine Systems. In his book Oil Spill Jack (Gallagher, 2016), he tells his fascinating life story, including his time in the U.S. Air Force during the 1950s in France.
