Allan Carver Gallo

Allan Carver Gallo, 82 of Nixa, Missouri, died peacefully of natural causes at his home in the early morning hours of Friday, May 23, 2025. He was born November 28, 1942 in Braddock, Pennsylvania. Al was a graduate of Shanksville-Stonycreek High School and was raised in Stoystown, Pa.

He is preceded in death by his parents, Paul and Florence Gallo. He is survived by his three sisters, eight children, seventeen grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and a whole host of friends and random people who tried to help him “figure out this darned iPhone.”

In 1960, he enrolled at Logan Chiropractic College in St. Louis. Three years later, he transitioned into a career in electronics, working as a floor merchandise manager at E.J. Korvette department store in St. Louis, Mo. Then in 1970, he began a job in copier sales that would last until he retired.

Throughout the 1990s, he bombarded Ozarks businesses with promotional scratch pads which were emblazoned with “Al Gallo: The Copier and Fax Man.” He was a proud salesman, and he reveled in seeing his scratch pads in every nook and cranny of southwest Missouri. He said he wanted to make his competitors nervous— imagining them walking into a business only to find prospective customers writing on notepads with their competitor, ‘Al Gallo,” printed boldly across the top.

Al was known far and wide as a ham radio operator, maintaining a license since 1957. His call letters, W0ERE, beamed out across the world from the various ham radio stations he maintained throughout his life.

In 1983, as the space shuttle Columbia orbited Earth, his ham radio passion soared to new heights. Astronaut and ham radio operator Owen Garriott was making history aboard the shuttle as the first ham to communicate from space. From a hilltop cemetery in Ava, Mo., Al Gallo was ready for the moment. He attached a giant mobile antenna atop his van. With a clear sky and a crackly signal, he said his call letters into the handset. Moments later, a voice from space acknowledged him. He had made contact with Owen Garriott while in orbit. It was among his proudest moments as an amateur radio enthusiast.

If radios were the background noise of his home, then his harmonicas provided the musical soundtrack. Whether driving down the road, sitting in his easy chair or playing at an Ozarks jam, Al loved playing his harps. And he loved listening to music. One of his favorite songs was “A Satisfied Mind” by Porter Wagoner.

He lived in Highlandville from 1988 until 2024, when he said goodbye to his cherished home. To many, his property looked like it had been occupied by a mad scientist. But to him, it was a peaceful refuge. From his house nestled in the woods, he called birds and embraced nature. He could do that while talking to someone on the other side of the world – because of all the radio towers and antennae he had erected in the trees and because of all the wires he had strung across the yard.

He may have indeed been “an analog man in a digital world,” as he often professed. But you wouldn’t know it from his Facebook page. His sometimes daily posts remain a gift to those he left behind. He loved posting videos of nature, playing the harmonica or sharing his life philosophy— all from the comfort of the home he loved.

More important to him than anything was his faith. He was a born-again Christian who raised his family in Baptist churches. For years, a vintage chalkboard hung in his house, with his unmistakable handwriting across the top: “THANK YOU, LORD”

Below that, in chalk, he listed things he was thankful for: Food, heat, clothing, church, your love and sacrifice for our soul, seasons, health, earth, friends, gardens, heaven, hands, vehicles, little kids.

Al always acknowledged he was not a perfect person and he admitted his mistakes in life. As his children grew older, he told them they could ask anything they wanted about their upbringing. He was a gentle soul who sought love and knowledge, and was not beyond admitting his faults.

His final day was spent shopping with a daughter, hanging out with a grandson, and leaving a voice message for one of his sons. For 82 years, Al was a beloved friend to so many, right until the very end.

We will miss you, W0ERE. We may not have all understood what a 30-meter beacon was, but we will definitely miss hearing it.

73, Alpha Lima.

A memorial service for Allan Carver Gallo will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 31, 2025 at Adams Funeral Home, Nixa, with Kevin Cosma officiating.

Cremation rites will be accorded by Adams Crematory and arrangements are under direction of Adams Funeral Home, Nixa.