Bobbi Gallagher: A Legacy of Caring and Commitment

Bobbi Gallagher moved to Carlsbad By The Sea (CBTS) in 2015 and lived there until her death in 2022. In those seven years she had an outsized impact on her community in more ways than one.

Bobbi joined the community chaplain’s scripture reading group shortly after joining the CBTS community and there she met Marlene Landon, who would become one of her closest friends. Marlene remembers that Bobbi had no shortage of friends. Bobbi was generous with her time and she went out of her way to make her neighbors and friends feel heard and seen. “Bobbi gave her time to the people who needed it most,” Marlene recounts. “She would visit with those she felt needed help and care.”

Bobbi was generous with her charitable gifts as well. One year after moving to CBTS, she entered into her first Charitable Gift Annuity with the Front Porch Communities Foundation. It was the first of five gift annuities she would fund to benefit resident assistance at her community.

The last gift annuity entered into shortly before her death was funded with a Qualified Charitable Distribution from her Individual Retirement Account. These planned gifts were Bobbi’s way to care for CBTS residents in the future, after she was gone.

But she had one more surprise for her friends and neighbors, another expression of her caring that came to fruition after her death. Bobbi made Front Porch Communities Foundation the beneficiary of two life insurance policies that paid a significant benefit to the Foundation to support the Resident Assistance Fund at CBTS.

Associate Philanthropy Officer Jackie Smith said of the gift, “I was struck by how Bobbi didn’t only care for her neighbors, but she cared about them, even after she was gone. Her estate gift will continue provide for her neighbors in the future.”

Bobbi Gallagher gave her time to residents who needed it most during her lifetime and gave her
money for residents who need it most after her death. Bobbi is sorely missed at CBTS but her legacy of caring lives on in her community.

Originally published in the Spring 2024 issue of Community Matters.