Getting to Know: Pat Gallagher

Pat Gallagher

Military affairs liaison, Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce

When Gallagher gets a job, she says, “I hang onto it.”

In fact, she tried to retire from the Chamber four years ago but was talked into staying on part-time, focusing primarily on McConnell Air Force Base. Last month, she was awarded the Tampa Bay Trophy Award, created by the Tampa Bay Defense Alliance to honor a civilian for “sustained and enduring service” to community, the U.S. Air Force and airman like those at McConnell who are part of Air Mobility Command.

Chamber president and CEO Gary Plummer said Gallagher played a key role in building community support for the KC46 Air Force Tanker program being located at McConnell.

“Pat’s name is the first that comes to mind whenever McConnell Air Force base is part of the conversation,” Plummer said.

Raised in Fort Scott, Gallagher studied at William Woods College in Fulton, Mo., and the University of Kansas. She moved to Washington, D.C. and, answering ad in the newspaper, got a job with Bill and Alice Marriott when they were just getting started in the hotel business. “I became one of the first five employees of Marriott hotels,” said Gallagher, who did advertising and public relations for the chain. “When I left 35 years ago, they had just opened their 150th hotel. It was fun being in on the ground floor of multi-billion corporate entity.”

After 20 years with Marriott – with a break to start a family – Gallagher returned to Kansas, answered another ad and went to work for the Chamber in 1983. She joined its governmental relations department in 1995 and has concentrated solely on military matters since her semi-retirement, working with Sen. Jerry Moran, Gov. Laura Kelly and others. She is credited with bringing Friends of McConnell, a civilian support organization, under the Chamber’s umbrella.

Gallagher has two children – Keira Franz, a lobbyist in Washington, and Karl Franz, a colonial anthropologist who lives in the same area. She enjoys visiting them, travel, cooking and theater.

“I like to be out and about with friends,” she said. “Anything social.”