Pete was born on a Winters day in December of 1940. December 3rd in Garretson South Dakota was a very happy day for the Galliher Family. Pete was now the baby of the family with a brother(David Arne) two years old and a sister(Patricia Diane) one year old. The name on his birth certificate was Gerald Theodore Galliher. Gerald was his chosen name and he probably would have picked up the nickname Gerry except the Doctor had different ideas. When he held Pete upside down and slapped him on the back to get him breathing he said "Hey Pete, wake up" So Pete was Christened by Dr. Shorga. It wasn't the first time Dr. Shorga did this. He did the same thing when (the Late)Philip Alan McDonald was born. He slapped Phillip Alan on the back and said "Hey Butch wake up..." Fortunately for Butch he was able to shuck that name when he grew up. Pete's name was a favorite name of Petes father David Isaac Galliher. Everyone liked that name and it stuck. Pete's middle name Theodore came from his uncle Ted whom Pete worshipped all of his life. Uncle Ted was Pete's mother’s(Guste Amelia) twin brother. The fresvik twins, Ted and Guste were born in a Sod farmhouse in _Rock_County, Minnesota. The Fresvik family moved to Garretson on Armistice day in 1918, the day WWI ended. Pete had a very happy early childhood, and he was soon blessed with two younger sisters, Susan and Sharon. Pete had 5 brothers, David, Steve, Richard(Late), Jason, and Terry. He had 5 sisters, Patricia(Late), Susan, Sharon, Janice and Nancy(Late). His Father was David Isaac Galliher(Late) and his Mother was Guste Amelia Fresvik (late). Pete's antics were a source of family entertainment and pride but he had a couple of bad scrapes growing up in Garretson. The Splitrock River was off limits to the children of Garretson unless they were with their parents. Everyone enjoyed the park in summer for picnics and fishing. Pete managed to find his way down to the river one day and when he went missing the whole town turned out to find him. His shoes were found at the rivers edge, right above the dam, his mothers anguish was indescribable. The river had taken mothers childhood friends and she was inconsolable in her grief, until Pete was discovered taking a nap in the house. Pete was only 4 or 5 years old and despite the fact that he was admonished (to say the least) never to go near the river again, it didn't take long before he was right back at it but, he was careful not to get caught. It is safe to say that he earned his reputation as "a little imp" but, his adventures were many and he kept everybody guessing as to what he would come up with next. You might think that the most memorable incident of his childhood was when everyone thought he had drowned but that wasn't it. Pete really shook up the town of Garretson SD one fine summers afternoon behind Rollag's Garage. Pete and his friends had some matches and they wondered if there was anything inside the big empty oil drums behind the garage. So they decided that the way to find out was just light a match and drop the match into one of the 50 gallon drums to find out if they could see anything. Gerald DeShepper was knocked unconscious by the explosion which rocked the town of Garretson. This was another one of Pete's adventures that made him famous for his mischief. Pete got to shoot his first rifle when he was 7 years old. Brother David was 9 when he got a Steven's single shot bolt action 22 rifle. Pete and David went with their father to the Devil's Gulch for their first target practice. Pete had to wait 3 whole years before he was old enough to go hunting on his own, three years was a long time and then he had to get permission from his father and older brother before he could go hunting on his own. But the years of waiting paid off because he had weapon safety drilled into the core of his being and never had an accident. Blackbirds were the nemesis of the farmers. The farmers encouraged Pete and all the young hunters to eliminate as many as possible. Farmers even handed out free 22 shells, sometimes. Birds made the farmers lives miserable because they could eat the seeds faster than the farmer could put them in the ground. Birds and rabbits were the first game that Pete hunted in his native South Dakota homeland. Game was plentiful in the fall in the form of Pheasants. When Pete graduated to Pheasant Hunting he was the favorite hunting partner of his uncle Ted. Ted Fresvik trained Pete in the Art of taking Pheasants, Ducks and Geese. Ted instructed Pete with regard to hunting and fishing. In the family Pete was always said to be "Ted's Boy". He was named after Ted and he loved him with all of his heart and soul. To Ted, Pete was the son he never had. Ted and Pete hunted Pheasants,Ducks and Geese. They fished their favorite lakes and whenever possible the Split Rock River. The Split Rock was the western border of the town of Garretson, SD. The river was cut by the glaciers that covered North America more than 10,000 years ago. The glaciers cut through the stone bedrock and left huge rock formations along the banks. A dam was built during the depression. A Stone bath house was built at the dam site which also housed a concession stand. A mountainous glacier sat beside the river at this point more than 10,000 years ago. it cut a swath through solid rock and the result was a stream that emptied into the Split Rock river just above the dam There were many very high rock formations along this tiny creek The rock formations and creek became known as The Devil's Gulch. This was Pete’s domain as a boy and he knew every tree, rock and stone. He was there in summer, spring and fall whenever he could gather his pals for another adventure off they went to the Devils Gulch or the banks of the Split Rock. His first water adventures were the rafts he built for venturing out on the Split Rock and Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were real heroes and he wanted to relive their adventures and he more than did that. Under the bridge across the Split Rock were the mysterious Indian Joes from Tom and Huck’s adventures. What was known as “A Bum’s Jungle” existed there, it was between the railroad tracks and and on the bank of the river. It was a place to be avoided unless you wanted to get boiled in Indian Joes soup kettle but Pete was Pete and he made a friend or two in the jungle camp. Pete went to work at an early age and one of his first jobs was a paper route which he worked diligently at, keeping every one in town supplied with the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. A very harsh winter and a blinding blizzard ended his career in the newspaper business. His next challenge was working in his uncle’s grocery store. Pete was a jack of all trades, later in life,and it started, working in Ted and Don’s Grocery in Garretson SD. Grandfather had an apartment house, Uncle Sam had a Clothi8ng and Appliances store. So Pete had a lot of work as a child especially when it was combined with duties in the Galliher household. There was always a demand for his services but he still managed to make his forays into the forest and stream looking for the ultimate prize, the largest fish, a limit of Pheasant, or a pelt from his traps. He started high school in 1954. He passed his classes until his senior year when he joined the Navy at age 17, to see the world. He got his high school GED in the Navy and became a Second Class Signalman. He was an expert in Semaphore which is the art of sending messages by the use of two flags, one in each hand positioned to represent a letter in the alphabet. The Semaphore Signalman also learned Morse Code and could communicate via Signal Lights. He went to sea on an LST. LST stands for Landing Ship, Tank it could go right up to the beach and unload tanks, artillery, vehicles and supplies. It was capable of beaching itself and then winching itself back off the beach with its stern anchors. It was 340 ft in length approx and 55 ft in the beam. It was shallow in the draft because it had to go right onto the beach. Riding too high in the water made for instability so it had ballast tanks that could be filled to lower it in the water and make it more stable. It was not a pleasant ship to be on in a storm. Once Pete finished his service he swore he would never get back on another LST. Pete and his LST were in a Typhoon and that was the end of any affection he might have had for the Landing Ship, Tank. His life as a sailor didn't end with the navy. He worked on many boats and had many adventures as well as mis-adventures. He got his Mates Papers when he was working in the Gulf of Mexico. He learned Navigation by teaching himself from the Loran Manual. He loved to fish so on the first opportunity he went to Alaska on a commercial Salmon fishing boat. He was on the stern when the net was coming in, he slipped and his hand went in the winch, then when he tried to pull his hand out with this other hand that went into the winch. Both hands were crushed and he would have died but a crewmate stopped the winch just in time. That ended his first fishing season in Alaska, but he went back the next year. In Alaska he fished for Salmon for 2 years, then he skippered a Herring Boat and a tug that pushed barges out into the Bering Sea for construction of oil rigs. They told him that when the sea looked like it was covered with oil to head for shore as quick as possible. It was ice forming and freezing into ice bergs. The bow of the boat was very strong because it was designed to push barges. So when they say the first small ice berg Pete ran into it just for fun, his crewmates yelled "Hey Pete, there is another one, get that one", which he did. But the ice bergs got bigger and finally they hit one that was so big it frightened Pete and he avoided all contact with the ice, hoping they would get to shore in time. They made it OK. Pete's sister Susan was married to an executive of a very strong union. Susan's husband helped Pete get into this union and he made a good living after that on the Tug Boats that went from Spokane to Alaska. Japan was a port of call and he loved the orient from the first time he set foot there. Every book he could find he thoroughly enjoyed if it had a setting in the orient. So Pete was on a quest for the true love of his life, an oriental goddess, and he found her in the last 6 years of his life. A friend of his described Pete and Nung's relationship as a love affair like none he had ever seen, they loved each other so much. Pete died a very much loved and happy man. The really tough part of Pete’s life was the fact that he had a Terminal Disease from the time he left the Navy in 1961 until the end of his life. The most important book to a Physician is the PDR. This book and every almost any general medical text book on disease carries with it a description of Pete’s first Terminal Disease. Terminal meaning a disease that you will have until your death. Terminal does not mean you will die of it only that it could be the ultimate cause of your death. The disease is almost invisible to people in the general population. People are dying left and right and the institutions of health, mental health and criminal incarceration are full, packed to the rafters with the victims of the disease. How can it be so invisible, so insidious when it destroys life and fabric of life for families all over the globe? I don’t even want to say what it is because the reader may well be afflicted and be so misguided as not to know what I am talking about. Pete’s life hung in the balance over his fight with this disease many, many times. His family and his freedom were lost to him because of it. Pete said it was atypical of sailors and even gave me one of his favorite novels that described it to a T. His life completely fell apart and tried to come together many, many times. We need to stop and say a prayer right now in Pete’s name to save those who have an addiction that is a terminal disease for which there is no other course but to go insane, die or stop the bus that is going to this destination. Stop the bus right here, pull that cord that tells the driver of the bus to stop so a victim can get off right here and right now. The beauty and truth of Pete’s life were those many times at sea when it was heaven on earth to be where he was, experiencing what he was a witness to and a part of. To a sailor there is no way to describe being at one with the world on the open sea. Pete had a daughter he loved all of his life, Nina Renee. He named his last boat Nina Renee before he married. The research that has been done on abused drugs designated some as a recreational variety. Like anything which is found in nature to have therapeutic value recreational drugs can be hazardous to your health and well being. There was research that came to the conclusion that THC could be therapeutic for Alcoholism. Pete believed that it was therapeutic for that and for the pain of cancer. He had his cancer for 8 years but, he would not take chemotherapy. He was resigned to the fact that he would ride it out to the end, nevertheless friends and family brought him “The Cure” and he tried all those things, it may have prolonged his time on earth. The Pete legend includes the goals he set out to accomplish and he did that many times. As a boy he raised raccoons. He played sports including football. He was good with rifle, shotgun and when his father died he inherited the Hawken 50 Caliber rifle made by his Dad. Typical of his disease any possession he had slipped through his fingers easily. Only in his sober years did he manage to find a way to do business with material things and had very successful real estate ventures. When he cashed out his property in Washington State he left the US for good. He had no desire to come back. He invested in New Zealand but was delivered a financial blow when his New Zealand dollars were subject to Devaluation. He lost about $60,000 of his money when New Zealand devalued the dollar. He invested in a business and the book keeper was an embezzler who went to jail but Pete lost the entire investment in this Company. Finally he moved to the South Island and went Tuna Fishing to improve his fortunes. His fortunes improved and he invested in a small one room house on a remote beach. He lived there for several years. He had his own spring for fresh water and the beach area was continuously supplied with driftwood. Pete cut this wood and it supplied him with his only source of hear for the house, his wood stove. Pete fished and caught so many trout he finally decided that it was enough for one lifetime. He made a number of friends because he was not a hermit but a very social and he loved to entertain his friends and family. He had years of experience as very good cook and could really cook up a storm. All the members of his family were recipients of his expertise in the kitchen. Pete made friends easily and his entertainment at the dinner table with his collection of recipes was a triumph that he repeatedly did to the great satisfaction of all who knew him. At the end of his life it was the native Thai people who came to Pete to experience what he called simple fare. He discovered that his Thai friends were delighted when he added potato dishes to their diet. He was saddened that more people could not accomplish this simple feat of bringing people together at the dinner table. And at the end of his life he opened a restaurant which could and did feed in the neighborhood of 30 people at a sitting when there were sufficient tourists. Nung shared his joy in this and he knew she was the angel he was looking for when he discovered the same capacity in her nature. Thai people eat late in the evening and enjoy each others company before during and after a good meal. Creating that environment to share each others company was his dream come true. For Pete this was a lifelong quest that finally brought him to Thailand and to the home that Nung made for him. BROTHER I LOVE YOU That's what brothers do Not for you but for me This is just what is true It's just what brothers do You knew you were a spirit Human is what you wanted to be Now that experience is Done Your spirit is now truly free Don't hang around here Just to check up on me Get down to the Pier And get back out to Sea Chart that course and find Uncle Ted Uncle Sam Granpa and Grandma Richard and Patty You'll find Mom and Dad They have a place at the table That is always for you. That is what parents do Go Petey Boy Take all my love Your boat's pushing off I'll give you a shove Love you always David