In Remembrance: Joseph G. Gall ’48, ’52PhD Died on September 12 2024

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Joseph Grafton Gall of Baltimore, MD died at his home from heart failure on September 12, 2024, at the age of 96. Joe was a 1945 graduate of the Woodberry Forest School in Virginia; he earned his BA in 1948 and his PhD in biology in 1952, both from Yale University. 

Joe began his professional career as an assistant professor in the zoology department at the University of Minnesota from 1952 to 1963. In 1963, he moved to New Haven to accept an appointment as professor in the biology department at Yale. In order to continue his bench research with less administrative responsibilities, he moved in 1983 to the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Embryology in Baltimore. Throughout his research career, he additionally mentored students, and taught undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and others at UMinn, Yale, the Carnegie Institution, and as an adjunct faculty member in the Johns Hopkins Department of Biology. He retired from research in 2020 at the age of 92. His research focused on illuminating the structure and functions of the cell nucleus and its organelles, for which he received numerous awards. He was noted for being an early champion of women in science. Read more about Gall’s career at carnegiescience.edu.

The things most important to Joe in his life were his family, interpersonal relations, and scientific integrity. He was interested in everything, had broad knowledge of science and the history of biology and optics. He was insightful, kind, good-natured, generous, and beloved by all. 

He was preceded in death by his brothers John C. Gall Jr. and Howard S. Gall. He is survived by his wife of 42 years, Diane M. Dwyer; his first wife, Dolores Gall; his sister-in law Carol Gall; his son Lawrence F. Gall (Nancy Barrer) and his daughter Barbara G. Eidel (Stewart Eidel); and this three granddaughters: Jennifer Barrer-Gall (David Bedar), Lillian Eidel, and Shelby Eidel. 

In lieu of flowers, friends may support the Life Sciences Research Foundation and BioEYES in Joe’s memory. 

—Submitted by the family.