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Ann M. Galloway (1924-2017)

THE BLADE

Ann M. Galloway (1924-2017)

Cultural, civic leader had local, global perspectives

Ann M. Galloway, a champion of international goodwill and for decades a cultural and civic leader in the Toledo area, died Wednesday in St. Clare Commons, Perrysburg. She was 93.

She was recovering from hip surgery and developed a pulmonary embolism, said her daughter Cassie Bertke. She lived in her longtime West Toledo home until March.

“I consider Ann Galloway to have been as close to the grande dame of Toledo as anybody I knew during the times I’ve been active in Toledo,” said Carty Finkbeiner, Toledo’s former three-term mayor.

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“Ann, she had energy practically like nobody else I know,” Mr. Finkbeiner said. “She was involved with so many causes and so many people and always gave it her best.”

Mrs. Galloway was known most widely for her work with Toledo Sister Cities International, of which she was a trustee, but she remained active with Lourdes University and the ProMedica Flower Hospital auxiliary.

“She loved life and loved doing things. She loved being around people,” her daughter said. “She truly believed that we were a global people and that we had to reach out to others in all walks of life, and she was going to practice what she preached.”

Toledo’s first sister city was Toledo, Spain, and Mrs. Galloway was a former president of the Association of Two Toledos. She traveled the world and at least twice a year used to visit Spain, where she helped develop scholarship and executive programs.

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“We had one those maps on the wall, and I think we ran out of pins,” her daughter said.

Mrs. Galloway has been a board member of the Toledo Opera Association and, as chairman multiple years of the Sapphire Ball, raised tens of thousands of dollars for the organization — and, in separate campaigns, for the Toledo Symphony and the Ursuline Foundation.

“She had a mind that was so creative,” said Marina Lung, a neighbor and friend who was past president of the opera association and past chairman of the Sapphire Ball. “She would generate enthusiasm from others, because she would get so excited about it, that it always became a pleasure to work with her. She knew how to bring out the best in people.”

The many organizations with which she was active included the Toledo Museum of Art, the Toledo Botanical Garden, and the Leukemia Society. And she received many honors through the years, locally and internationally. Most recently, Sister Cities International recognized her lifetime service.

She preferred the accolades go elsewhere, Mrs. Bertke said: “It was the cause and what good would it do in the long run.”

Mrs. Galloway read cookbooks the way others read novels, her daughter said, and she cooked for and entertained groups of all sizes and diverse backgrounds in her family home.

“Being entertained in a private home, rather than a restaurant, makes a person feel special,” she told Mary Alice Powell, then The Blade’s food editor, in 1978.

Born July 6, 1924, to Mary and Peter Blazer, she grew up in Haskins, Ohio, and Bowling Green and was a St. Ursula Academy graduate. She attended what is now Case Western Reserve University and the University of Toledo and worked as an executive secretary at Willys Overland Motors.

She and her husband, Robert, married Aug. 23, 1946. She later was a support as he founded a travel agency that specialized in trips by student groups. She was a frequent chaperone on school tours of Washington. Mr. Galloway died Oct. 26, 1998.

She’d been a member of Gesu Church and Little Flower Church.

Surviving are her sons, David and Tom Galloway; daughters Cassie Bertke and Sue Richardson; 10 grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2-8 p.m. Sunday at the Walker Funeral Home, Sylvania Township, with a Scripture at 7 p.m. Funeral services will begin at 10 a.m. Monday at Gesu Church.

The family suggests tributes to the Young Artists and Authors Showcase of Sister Cities International in Washington, or to the scholarship funds of either St. Francis de Sales High School or St. Ursula Academy.

Contact Mark Zaborney at mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.

First Published August 5, 2017, 4:00 a.m.

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