Gerald R Callahan

A Southernized blue-collar

Chicago Yankee

Born December 13, 1932, to a blue-collar Irish family in Chicago, Illinois, Mr. Callahan joined the Navy after attending Bowling Green University, Ohio, for one year. His Naval service was based in Charleston, SC onboard USS PILOT (AMS 104), a minesweeper. During his service he was attached to the Special Services baseball and basketball team, and edited the ships newsletter, THE SWEEPER.

While in Charleston, he met and married his wife, the former Alice Miller, in 1955.

He was the first of the Callahan Clan to get his college degree, graduating in 1958 from Stetson University in Deland, Florida. Then he was hired to coach the College of Charleston basketball team. After two years, he left and joined a national insurance firm where he rose through the ranks in four short years to Field Sales Manager out of Houston, Texas. In this role, he oversaw the activities of eight District Managers and one hundred plus agents.

At this point, his career path had required five moves, with more likely to come. Deciding to settle down, the family returned to South Carolina and settled in Columbia where he became CEO of a small insurance company, later adding the designations of CLU, ChFC and CFP. Fifty plus years later, he retired from a national brokerage firm as VP of Financial Planning and Insurance.

Throughout this journey, Alice remained his one true love and partner. She passed away June 29, 2018, after 63 years of marriage. They had two sons, Steven Michael (PhD) and their youngest Glenn Edward (deceased 1992 at age 29 from cancer).