Shady Side Sailor, Former Attorney Receives Environmental Award

SHADY SIDE, MD — Retired attorney and environmental activist Robert P. Gallagher is the 2019 John V. Kabler Memorial Award winner. The award is presented by the Maryland League of Conservation Voters every year in honor of an outstanding environmental leader or organization. Other 2019 awardees include Sen. Brian Feldman, Sen. Cheryl Kagan and Delegate Brooke Lierman.

Gallagher graduated from the George Washington University School of Law in 1971. He practiced law in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and the Republic of Palau from 1971 until 2005. In 2005, he retired from the Washington-based Groom Law Group where he was a partner and managing partner to found West/Rhode Riverkeeper. He served as Riverkeeper and executive director before becoming chair of its board of directors in 2009.

In 2009, Gallagher co-founded the Anne Arundel Chapter of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters of which he serves as co-chair of the steering committee. He also is a member of the board of directors of the Scenic Rivers Land Trust and a trustee of the Chesapeake Environmental Protection Association. Other organizations he's helped with include Waterkeepers Chesapeake, Scenic Rivers Land Trust, Annapolis Green, Maryland Clean Agriculture Coalition and Delmarva Land and Litter Challenge.

"Bob’s devotion to the health of the Chesapeake Bay, its watershed and its residents began in his youth in the waters off St. Mary’s County and continues today on both the Western and Eastern Shores of our beloved estuary,” said Charles Porcari, interim director of Maryland League of Conservation Voters, in a statement. "His countless hours of service to a remarkable array of environmental organizations offer irrefutable testimony to this lawyers’ volunteer efforts.”

Gallagher lives with his wife Cate on the West River in Shady Side. He is a lifelong water sports enthusiast and sailor, even racing a sailboat across the Atlantic and the Pacific.