Pat Gale (Falk)

“Unsung lift trooper” who traveled the world and supported the British lift industry is mourned. 

Pat Gale, who was married for 54 years to longtime ELEVATOR WORLD correspondent and founder of the British Lift Association (BLA) Bill Gale, passed away in March at age 76 in London. Pat Falk met Bill Gale in the late 1930s when they both attended the Farm Road Mission in Morden, Surrey. They were active members of the Youth Club and key to organizing many groups including the table tennis team, music clubs and reading groups. After they married in 1948, Pat and Bill Gale lived in London near where they were born, with Bill resuming work as a trainee accountant for Unilever after two years in the Royal Navy. However, on the advice of Pat’s father, Ben Falk, Bill Gale joined Express Lifts as a fitter’s mate.

Pat Gale was born into an elevator family. Her father was a senior test engineer for Express lifts and her uncles were entrepreneurs and pioneer electrical engineers based in the U.K. Her brother, Douglas, worked for many elevator companies before setting up his own elevator contractor company which his son, Gary, continued to run for many years. Prior to turning Pat’s full dedication to the lift industry, she was a devoted mum to her three sons: John, who followed in his father’s footsteps as an EW correspondent; Peter and Richard; plus seven grandchildren. John, a great photographer, has had many of his industry photos on EW covers. 

A student of electrical engineering, Bill Gale would go on to work for the renowned Marryat & Scott, where he rose to become a valued director, managing teams and projects and supporting and encouraging many young lift men to learn the industry. Many of these young men went on to own their own lift companies and play an important part in the lift world. In later years, Bill was asked to fill a lift consultant position with the Greater London Council. With Pat by his side, Bill Gale and a group of colleagues founded the BLA in the early 1980s, with Bill serving as executive director and Pat as secretary — roles they would hold from 1984 to 1992. In 1986, Bill and Pat Gale helped organize the first Lift Industry Exhibition in the U.K., modeled after National Association of Elevator Contractors (NAEC) conventions in the U.S.

When EW founder William C. Sturgeon asked Bill Gale to become a correspondent, he readily accepted, covering projects and events not only in his native U.K. but all over the world until he passed away following a brief illness in 2003. Throughout Bill Gales’ travels, Pat was nearly always with him, sharing reporting duties and even some of the heavier lifting. 

Pat Gale played an important part within the BLA — seeking out new members, organizing social events where members could meet, finding venues for committee meetings in different parts of the country (so as not to be totally London-based) and pioneering a fax-based newsletter to keep members informed. Pat Gale was among team members who tackled the major task of organizing and ensuring members had input to social and industry-related events. This would also include dismantling expo stands and providing follow-up information for the members. A particular case in point was when, along with Betty Lewis and the staff of the Novotel in Hammersmith, West London, Pat Gale entered data and carefully counted the number of expo visitors — between 700 and 900 on each of the two days. Sturgeon and his wife, Mary Sands Sturgeon, had a close affinity with the Gales, whom they considered good friends. Indeed, the two couples both knew what it was like to launch new elevator associations — Sturgeon, who was among founding members of NAEC, and Bill Gale, BLA founder. After years of association and expo building, Bill and Pat Gale retired from BLA leadership in 1992, becoming honorary members. In 1997, BLA evolved into the Lift and Escalator Industry Association, the result of a merger between BLA and the National Association of Lift Makers.

EW Publisher and Editor-at-Large Ricia Sturgeon-Hendrick said: 

“Pat will be so missed. Every time we went to London for an elevator event, I knew I would see Pat. She always wanted to be with her ‘elevator family.”

Upon the Gales’ 1993 retirement, William C. Sturgeon wrote: “Hopefully, Pat will still be seen at the lift occasions she so loved to be a part of. She is one of the unsung ‘lift troopers.”