Gallelli, William Joseph (Bill)

Born in Calgary in 1917. He attended St. Angela’s Elementary School and St. Mary’s High School, leaving school in 1934 to work in the family business, working mainly in the city and on highway construction sites. In 1948, with the ever- increasing construction in Calgary, Bill and his brother Nado focused their work solely within the city.

This handmade silver and gold buckle was presented to Bill on his birthday by Delores in 1955. The driver of the Tractor Crawler depicted on the buckle was Bill himself.

In 1951 Bill married Delores Stothers and moved into a very small apartment above the

company’s garage at 630 Riverside Boulevard, sharing the space with the offices of Gallelli

and Sons. It was here that their son Nick was born in May 1952. Named William Nicholas

Gallelli, he always insisted on being called “Nick” after his namesake.

By October 1952 Bill and Delores had completed a new home on 7th Avenue NE on the ridge

overlooking the Gallelli family home. The banks of the ridge behind the house were extended

by Gallelli and Sons by dumping topsoil gathered from their projects, creating a large garden

and yard which affords a beautiful view over the City and the Bow River.

As a young man Bill was active in athletic pursuits. In high school he had excelled in hockey

and considered accepting a hockey scholarship to Gonzaga but, instead, he chose to follow

his father and brothers into business. In adulthood Bill was very active in leisure activities,

maintaining a life-long involvement with curling with the Calgary Contractors’ Curling Club

and taking every opportunity to play cards, pool, bocce and bowling until well into his later

years. It was while bowling in the local C.Y.O. League that he met Delores. Bill was a keen

gardener with a large greenhouse and established his own brand of home-made wine, the

“Gallelli House of Wines”.

He also enjoyed creating authentic models of vintage machines.

During his lifetime Bill’s community contributions included being a Charter member of the

Calgary Italian Sportsman’s Dinner Group, Charter member of the Knights of Columbus St.

Alphonsus Council 4965, Charter member of the Father Naphin Assembly of the 4th Degree of the Knights of Columbus, Honorary Trustee of the Calgary Zoological Society, Original

Board

Member of the Columbus Manor Senior Citizens Project of Calgary, and Building Chairman of

the OLPH Reconstruction Project.

Delores recalls the many hours Bill spent as a volunteer for the Calgary Zoo. The parking lot

near the south (and at the time, the only) entrance to the Calgary Zoo used to flood due to a

problem with a small tributary of the Bow River, making access to the zoo difficult. On his

own initiative, Bill took a crew, a machine and gravel and permanently changed the course of

WILLIAM JOSEPH (BILL) GALLELLI was born in Calgary in 1917. He attended St. Angela’s Elementary School and St. Mary’s High School, leaving school in 1934 to work in the family business, working mainly in the city and on highway construction sites. In 1948, with the ever-

increasing construction in Calgary, Bill and his brother Nado focused their work solely within the city. the tributary, solving the flooding problem. This proved to be a big help to the Zoo but was not as well accepted by the Provincial Government in Edmonton. Bill was called to Edmonton to explain his actions and, in the end, was informally censured for not having had a permit. In 1972 Bill discovered an old slot machine in Dawson City which he bought and restored to its original condition. He donated it the Glenbow Museum where it provides great pleasure to school children visiting the 1970s area on the third floor who are allowed to try their luck with the requisite dimes.

After the ownership rights of Bill and Nado in Gallelli Construction Materials were purchased,

Bill formed a new company in May 1969, Bill Gallelli Investments. Bill’s son, Nick, and his

wife Delores, joined him in running this family business where they worked together in the

building of warehouses and townhouses to form the basis of a large rental portfolio, which

included large holdings on Horton Road and in Foothills Industrial Park, the largest of which

was a 48,000 sq. ft. warehouse. After the death of their only child, son Nick, of cancer in

1992, Bill and Delores gradually and voluntarily dissolved this investment company, fully

retiring in 2000.

Bill could, and did, fix most things. He and Delores built extensions to their original home,

including a beautiful terrazzo wall in their family room. In fact, it is almost impossible to list

all the things Bill had a hand in, but mostly Delores remembers him for his deep love of family.

He was very proud of his Italian heritage and of being a Calgarian.

Bill died in April 2005, the last remaining child of Nick and Julia Gallelli.