Winner pays tribute to veteran Albany newsman

Albany, N.Y., June 1—A memorial service will be held later today for Jay Gallagher, long-time Albany Bureau Chief for the Gannett News Service, whose stories and columns were familiar to Southern Tier readers of the Star-Gazette in Elmira, the Ithaca Journal, and Binghamton’s Press & Sun-Bulletin.

Gallagher passed away early last week following a courageous, year-long battle with pancreatic cancer.

The memorial service will be conducted at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Albany, just up the street from the state Capitol where Gallagher covered the workings of state government for more than 25 years beginning in 1984.

State Senator George Winner (R-C-I, Elmira) released the following statement today in tribute to Gallagher:

“My career in the state Legislature coincided for the past 25 years with Jay Gallagher’s tenure as one of state government’s finest-ever reporters.  Jay was a fixture at the Capitol for almost as long as I can remember.

“But my hometown paper is also a Gannett paper, and so the ‘Jay Gallagher’ byline has been a steady presence in the lives of newspaper readers in Elmira and across the Southern Tier for a long, long time.  

“We talked many times on many issues through the years Jay covered the Legislature.  He was straightforward, he was smart, he could be tough when called for, but you always felt that he did his best to be fair.   

“I respected him, but most of all I liked him.  ‘Good guy’ is what first comes to mind when you recall Jay Gallagher.

“Jay’s passing is a loss to a tradition of good journalism, but his example will carry on through those he mentored.  That will always be his greatest tribute.  My thoughts go out to his family and his many, many friends.” 

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See Jay Gallagher's obituary in the Albany Times Union

and click here for more on Jay's life and career.