"Dear friends in Christ:  In the name of Jesus and of his Church, we gather to pray for our brother, Jerome, that God may bring him to everlasting peace and rest. We share the pain of loss, but the promise of eternal life gives us hope."

So prayed the presiding priest as the funeral services began on October 25, 2008, for Brother Jerome Gallegos, FSC, a member of the De La Salle Christian Brothers’ western province for fifty-two years, who died on October 17 at the age of seventy, at Mont La Salle in Napa, California.

“For Jerome, his vocation, his life’s dream was never more charged with meaning and vitality than when he was working with others for the young,” said Brother Thomas Jones, FSC, Auxiliary Visitor of the District of San Francisco, in his eulogy.  “This is probably why schools were so important to him.  They were natural places for big brothers and sisters to form a family with and for young people.  He was attracted by the Founder’s vision that we are able to do much more for others if we combine our lives and our talents than if we act alone.”
  
Describing his gift for connecting with others, Brother Thomas said, “Jerome brought people together.  He looked for opportunities to tell stories, share a meal and engage in conversation…  He was the essence of hospitality, with an uncanny ability almost anywhere to create spaces that felt like home and to invite others to enter them.  He was proud of his humble roots in the heart of New Mexico (The Land of Enchantment), proud of the cultural richness and simplicity of his family where God, tradition and loyalty supersede materialism, status and self promotion.  He was gifted with a clear, intelligent mind that quickly grasped subtlety and nuance and delighted in repartee and double entendre.  His education in the classics, Latin and Greek, gave him a love for language and an appreciation for the richness of human thought that is shaped by words, enhanced by dialogue, and comes to life when people communicate in friendship.”
 
Brother Jerome was born July 17, 1938, in Bernalillo, New Mexico, to Eduardo Gallegos and Ignacita Gallegos, and later moved with his family to Los Angeles As a freshman at Cathedral High School in Los Angeles he encountered the De la Salle Christian Brothers and first glimpsed his incipient vocation. Transferring to the Junior Novitiate at Mont La Salle for the remainder of his high school education, he entered the Novitiate in June 1956, received the religious habit on August 14, 1956, earned his bachelor’s degree in education from Saint Mary’s College of California in 1961, and made his final vows as a Christian Brother in August 1963. 

The schools in the District of San Francisco at which he served include Saint Mary’s College High School, Berkeley, Bishop Armstrong High School, Sacramento, Garces Memorial High School, Bakersfield, Christian Brothers High School, Sacramento, Cathedral High School, Los Angeles, and Justin-Siena High School, Napa. Other duties included his roles as director of the Retreat House in St. Helena and director of the De La Salle Institute Foundation. Brother Jerome’s longest tour of duty was at De La Salle High School in Concord, where he served as Principal from 1979 to 1992. As Bob Ladouceur, religion teacher and football coach at the high school, said at the dinner marking the end of Brother Jerome’s tenure as principal, “Brother Jerome was the voice of reason and purveyor of justice. I always knew I could count on him for solid counsel, advice, and protection. His door was always open, his ears ready to listen, his judgment kind and thoughtful. I believe the students will miss him even more than I. He was a student’s principal… Jerome loved being with students.”

Brother Jerome is survived by two sisters, Mrs. Eleanor Wade of Palmdale, California, and Mrs. Emma Savala of Valencia, California, and by numerous nieces, nephews, and other extended family. He is buried at the Brothers’ cemetery at Mont La Salle.