When Philadelphia's Daniel Gallagher graduated from high school about 25 years ago, he gravitated toward plumbing because his friend’s father practiced the trade. But there’s an alternate reality where Gallagher became a history teacher.
Most of his peers in the neighborhood either enlisted in a military branch or started working a trade, but Gallagher actually visited a couple of colleges with the thought of getting a teaching degree and teaching history.
“I still read a lot of history. There’s a lot of history in Philadelphia, including the country’s first trade school opening here,” he says, a fact probably little known to most people.
In the end, Gallagher completed a plumbing apprenticeship, started a company — Daniels Plumbing and Heating — and is fully involved today running it and serving on trade association boards. His life unmistakably is that of a plumber, an entrepreneur and an active citizen of his community.
Yet he has also been able to achieve that alternative ambition in a way and is a teacher, too. His employees know that by working with him.
“I try to teach the guys when we’re out on jobs, especially the young guys,” Gallagher says. “We’ll pull out a tool and I’ll say, ‘Why are we doing this?’ or ‘Why is it being installed like that?’”
Read more about Daniels Plumbing and Heating in the September 2024 issue of Plumber magazine.
