In Memoriam: Pat Falk Gale

Pat Falk 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 95 in London. Pat Falk met Bill Gale in the 1940s when they both served at Farm Road Mission in Morden, Surrey, U.K., acting as messengers for the Civil Defence Service. After they married in the late 1950s, Pat and Bill Gale lived in London, 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. A student of electrical engineering, Bill Gale would go on to work for the renowned Marryat & Scott where he rose to become manager for the entire U.K. until he was asked to fill a lift consultant position with the Greater London Council. Pat Gale was born into an elevator family and, prior to turning her full dedication to the lift industry, was a devoted mum to her three sons: John, who followed in his father’s footsteps as an EW correspondent; Peter and Richard. 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 conventions in the U.S. 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.'”