James Roswell Gallagher, M.D. (1903-1995) was a specialist in adolescent health who shaped the field of Adolescent Medicine into a recognized discipline. Dr. Gallagher was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1903. He graduated from Yale College with a Bachelor’s Degree in 1925. In 1926, he married Constance R. Dann (1905-1997) in New Haven, Connecticut. He earned his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine in 1930.

After completing an internship at the New Haven Hospital and a residency at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, he was an instructor in Cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Medicine from 1932 to 1934. Concurrently he served as the School Physician at the Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He then moved on to School Physician at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, from 1934 to 1950. In 1950 and 1951, he was College Physician at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. He began his work at Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CHMC) in Boston in 1948 as a Consultant in Medicine. In 1951 he organized and became Chief of the Adolescents’ Unit, the country’s first comprehensive medical section caring for adolescents aged 12 to 21 years. In 1962 he was made Senior Associate in Medicine at CHCM.

Dr. Gallagher was affiliated with several other hospitals and universities, acting as a Consultant in Pediatrics at the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn (1963-?); Assistant Professor of Child Health, Harvard School of Public Health (1951-1953); Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School (1953-1956); Lecturer on Pediatrics,Harvard Medical School (1956-1965); and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School (1965-1967). Dr. Gallagher served as a Chairman for the Committee on Exercise and Physical Fitness of the American Medical Association. Additionally he was a member of the American Medical Association, Massachusetts Medical Society, American College of Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Pediatric Society, American Public Health Association, and the New England Pediatric Society. He served as an Overseer for the Boys’ Clubs of Boston, and he was a member of the Health and Safety Committee of the Boy Scouts of America. He was a Trustee of the Roxbury Latin School, and a member of the Massachusetts Council on Crime and Delinquency.

He retired from CHMC and Harvard Medical School in 1967. He came out of retirement to act as Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Yale University School of Medicine until retiring again in 1972. In 1972, Dr. Gallagher was a recipient of the C. Anderson Aldrich Award for his outstanding contribution in the field of child development. He died at his home in Lexington, Massachusetts at the age of ninety-two on November 10th, 1995.