GALLANT, Brian J., 66 of Sandwich, MA passed away unexpectedly at Falmouth Hospital on Monday November 22, 2021. He was born to the late Richard and Helen (Gallagher) Gallant in Somerville, MA on January 18, 1955.
Brian grew up in Somerville and Arlington, and attended Arlington Catholic High school. He had a Masters Degrees in Education from Newport University and a Master of Public Health from American Public University, a Bachelor Degree in Management from Lesley College and an Associates in Fire Science from Cape Cod Community College. Brian has had many different careers throughout his life, starting with working at the Coca-Cola Bottling plant in Sagamore after finishing high school. He was a call firefighter in Sandwich for a few years before becoming a permanent Firefighter in 1977, where he served until 1988, gaining the rank of Lieutenant. During this time, he was also the Director of Fire Training at the Barnstable County Fire Academy and then the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy in Sudbury. He also served as the Director of Civil Defense in the late 80’s. When Civil Defense became to be known as Emergency management, he was appointed as Emergency Management Director. He later formed National Fire and Medical services in Buzzards Bay, an environmental health and safety consulting firm. He then worked at Boston Edison Company in Plymouth as a Nuclear Training Specialist and then a Technical Training Supervisor. He went on to work for Ecologics in Anaheim, CA as a Regional Manager in charge of environmental health and safety training and consulting as well as managing the Staff and training center. Upon his return to MA, he worked for the Massachusetts Maritime Academy as a course facilitator and instructor where he developed and ran the oil spill program and conducted other trainings such as Hazardous materials, and later instructed in the Division of Graduate and Continuing Education in the Master of Science in Emergency Management program. He served as Vice President for Contingency Management Associates, specializing in environmental health and safety training and consulting. After leaving CMA, he formed Anchor Group where he provided training and consulting services ranging from environmental health and safety to homeland security emergency exercise program and public health emergency planning. He also responded to countless oil spills where he was typically responsible for safety of the entire operation and even received commendations from the United States Coast Guard. He was a Plymouth county public health emergency preparedness coalition emergency planner where he worked with local health departments to meet federal deliverables. After that, he served as the region 5 Health and medical coordination coalition program manager, where he was responsible for emergency planning and was response for the region’s health and medical emergency situations, coordinating the efforts of Public Health, Community Health Centers, Long Term Care, Hospitals and Emergency Management. After a break, he has also again served as the Emergency Management Director from 2012 until the time of his death. He was also a member of the Barnstable County Incident Management Team. As a part of Emergency Management, he was also responsible for and very proud of the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and has activated the team several times, most recently during the fall Nor’easter. He also had attained countless credentials, professional affiliations and certifications throughout his lifetime and has been published numerous times in periodicals and magazines. He has written three books covering hazardous materials, facilities manager’s guide to environmental health and safety, and emergency management.
He enjoyed dining out, meeting new people and telling stories from all of his travels and different careers. He could not go anywhere without knowing somebody, even if he was out of the country. He was extremely generous and would always help out anybody. Everyone who just met him always had the feeling that they had known him for a lifetime.
He is survived by his loving wife Heather (Ohman) Gallant, to whom shared 18 years in marriage. His brother Richard "Dick" of Stoughton (Joanne), Sister Moira of Nova Scotia, (Paul) and Brother Gerard, of Monson and countless friends. Also, he leaves behind former wife, Sue, son James, daughter in law, Amber, and grandson Luke, who he adored, of New Hampshire, and former wife, Lisa of Florida, and numerous nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by parents Richard and Helen and Brothers James and Denis.
Mass of Christian burial will be held on Wednesday December 1, 2021, 11AM at Corpus Christi Parish, 326 Quaker Meeting House Rd. Sandwich, MA. Burial will be private. Visiting hours will be held on Tuesday November 30, 2021 from 4-7PM at Nickerson-Bourne Funeral Home, 154 Route 6A Sandwich, MA 02563.
In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory can be made to Spaulding Rehabilitation of Cape Cod at https://spauldingrehab.org/giving. Checks can be mailed to Spaulding Rehabilitation, Development Office, 300 1st Ave., Charlestown, MA 02129. Or you may donate to a charity of your choice.
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