GALLY WAS ACTIVE VOLUNTEER.

Byline: Bettie Rencoret Senior Columnist

LANCASTER - If there was a job to do, Steven Valentine Gally was the first to volunteer to help get it done.

Involvement in local organizations like the Antelope Valley Allied Arts Association, the Antelope Valley Gem and Mineral Club and Antelope Valley Latin American Club began when he arrived in 1947 to work for North American Aviation, and it took on new focus in his retirement years.

Gally - who more often than any other man won the title Mr. Alfalfa for winning the Antelope Valley Fair's now-defunct Whiskerino beard-growing contest - died last month at age 86 in Oxnard, where he had lived for several years.

Gally died Feb. 1 in Oxnard's St. John's Regional Medical Center, ``quickly and without pain,'' according to his daughter, Stephanie Frieling.

Gally's life in Lancaster was a colorful part of the area's history. Born May 11, 1919, in San Pedro, he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a crew chief. After World War II ended, he was mustered out as a staff sergeant and went immediately to work for North American Aviation. In addition to North American, he spent some time as an employee of both Lockheed and Rockwell.

He loved his work, which he said was on ``almost all of the aircraft made around here,'' he said in a 1994 interview. He worked on the space shuttle, Lockheed's L-1011 jetliner and SR-71 Blackbird spy plane and North American's B-70 bomber, which he said ``is the most beautiful ship ever built.''

After he bowed out of the labor market, he put all his energies into his other activities.

But crippling arthritis in his joints, after injuries suffered in an auto accident, kept him away during his latter years from some of the things he loved, like fishing, rock hounding, gold panning and treasure hunting.

His love of the arts led him to accumulate a sizable collection of paintings by the late American Indian portrait painter, Charles LaMonk, an Antelope Valley resident whose work he greatly admired.

Gally is survived by his daughter and granddaughter, Jaqi, both of Oxnard; son, Steve Gally, of Pacific Grove; and brother, Johnnie Gally of North Carolina.

Galley was memorialized at a family gathering last month. His daughter would appreciate cards from those of his local friends who wish to pay tribute to him. They may be sent to Stephanie Frieling, 3751 Ketch Ave., Unit A, Oxnard, CA 93035.