John W. Gallivan and family honored for caring

Intermountain Catholic

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John W. ?Jack? Gallivan said he and his wife, the late Grace Mary Gallivan visited a lot of their friends at Christus St. Joseph Villa. He and his family will be honored April 3 with the Villa's Continuum of Caring Award. IC photo by Barbara S. Lee

SALT LAKE CITY — At 93, John William "Jack" Gallivan is still a man of passion. The publisher emeritus of the Salt Lake Tribune (he proudly speaks of his 60-year career with the newspaper) is now passionate about providing permanent homes for the chronically homeless.

It’s a passion he shared with his wife of 62 years, the late Grace Mary (Ivers) Gallivan until her death in 2000.

On April 3, Gallivan and their children, Gay (Mrs. Edward J. McDonough); John William Gallivan, Jr., and his wife, Stephanie; Michael Dennis Gallivan and his wife, Sharee; and Timothy Gallivan and his wife, Pam, will be honored with Christus St. Joseph Villa’s Continuum of Caring Award at the Villa’s annual Hope Benefit at Little America Hotel.

"Grace Mary and I had many friends whom we visited on a regular basis at the Villa, and when she died, her friends had the Grace Mary Gallivan stained glass window installed at the Villa.

Gallivan said the honor is very nice, and he suspects he’s being honored because he was literally one of the inventors of banquet, silent auction, live auction form of fund raising in Salt Lake City, the same form of fund raiser the Friends of Christus St. Joseph hold every year to honor Villa supporters like Gallivan.

"We held such fund raisers every year for the National Conference of Christians and Jews," of which Gallivan (with Joe Rosenblatt and Arch Madson) was a co-founder of the Salt Lake Chapter, and which is now known as the National Conference for Community and Justice.

Gallivan is still raising funds, but now his efforts go toward the Crusade for the Homeless, of which he is a co-founder. Just recently, Grace Mary Manor was dedicated and opened. The Crusade’s second housing facility, with its 84 separate units it (and the Sunrise Apartments) brings to 184 the number of permanent housing units available for the chronically homeless. Each facility offers 24-hour management and easy access to care and counselling.

"Having their own apartments means people who are homeless don’t have to worry about where they’re going to sleep," Gallivan said. "It’s very different from shelter living. It gives them self respect, which makes it easier for them to seek rehabilitation. So far, we have an 85 percent success rate with our residents."

With his long career and his continuous volunteer work, with Gallivan’s Irish sense of humor, he said "I’ve managed to keep out of the pool halls."

But, he has never really retired, and the Crusade for the Homeless has him still raising seed money to build or buy and renovate living space with the assistance of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, and for the next project, the renovation of the old Travelers’ Inn, a generous gift from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Christus St. Joseph Villa Honor will be just one of many earned by Gallivan. A 1937 graduate of Notre Dame University, the publisher emeritus of the Salt Lake Tribune commenced employment at Kearns Tribune Corp., and the Salt Lake Tribune in 1937. He served as assistant publisher there from 1948-1960, and was secretary of the corporation during those same years. He was publisher and president from 1960-1984, while he also served as president of the Newspaper Agency Corp. He was board chairman of the Kearns-Tribune Corp. from 1960-1997.

Born June 28, 1915, Gallivan was orphaned at age 5. He told the Intermountain Catholic the best way to become a publisher is to arrange to have yourself left on the doorstep of the woman who owns the newspaper – in his case, Jenny Judge Kearns (Mrs. Thomas F. Kearns), who adopted and raised him.

Gallivan led two campaigns for the restoration of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, one in the 1970s for the renovation of the exterior of the building, then again in the 1990s for the renovation of the interior of the church. In 1988, he was named a Knight of St Gregory the Great in recognition of his volunteer work on behalf of the Cathedral of the Madeleine.