AUGUST GALIANO

01/14/1927 - 02/23/2023

August was born January 14th, 1927 at Hotel Dieu Hospital in Beaumont, Texas to Ida Hillman and Augustine Gagliano. Their home was in the South end of Beaumont on Euclid Street, one block down from Ippolito’s grocery store. The family later bought a home in Beaumont’s North end, in the Pinecrest subdivision.

In 1944, the family moved to Houston for better paying defense work. August attended San Jacinto High School during the day and worked nights at KTRH as a control engineer. During the war even high school kids could get jobs adults had previously taken. (In grade school August and a friend built and operated a low wattage, AM radio station, playing Glenn Miller records for the neighborhood, which they shut down when told that it was illegal.)

He graduated from high school in 1946 and joined the Army Signal Corps. Because of his aptitude in electronics and high scores in “abstract reasoning” he was assigned to the Army Security Agency’s Cryptographic Section and was trained at Vint Hill Farms, Virginia and spent two years at ASA European headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. (The ASA was, at the time, a part of the National Security Agency.) After his discharge in 1949 he attended Lamar College in Beaumont. He was recalled to active duty in 1950 and served in an ASA unit during the Korean War. After his second discharge from the Army he married Amber Elizabeth (Beth) Willis and moved to Houston to continue studies at the University of Houston, working nights as an announcer/engineer at KTRHFM, Houston’s first classical music station located on the top floor of what was then the Gulf Building.

August completed his BBA at the University of Houston in 1955 and began working in the Houston Chronicle’s Research and Promotion Department, supervising market research for the newspaper. (Jesse Jones’ interest owned the Chronicle, as well as KTRH, the Rice Hotel and the Gulf Building. Jones, of course, was one of Houston’s most famous entrepreneurs.) Galiano was named Research and Promotion Manager of the Chronicle in 1967 and while in that position he was a member of the Houston Chamber of Commerce Research Committee; president of the American Marketing Association, Houston Chapter; and president of the International Newspaper Promotion Association, Southern Region. August retired in 1986 with more than thirty years at the Chronicle, having served in various positions and later with The Chronicle’s retirement association, The First Edition. He edited the association’s newsletter for four years. Most recently, he assisted his wife Beth (a Harris County Master Gardener) in the Garden Oaks Community Garden on Alba Street, which provides free, organically grown fresh vegetables for low-income families at local church food pantries. Galiano was co-founder of the Shepherd Park Plaza Men’s Group and volunteered as a Citizen Patroller in the neighborhood. He also served on The Shepherd Park Plaza Civic Club board of directors, and for five years, 1996-2000, edited and published “The Plaza Pulse,” the neighborhood’s monthly newsletter. August and Beth have been members of St. Rose of Lima parish for 65 years.

August is survived by his wife, Beth, with whom he celebrated his 70th wedding anniversary in June of 2022, daughter Margaret and her husband, Dick Anderson, daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Paul Nelson, and grandchildren, Devo Galiano, Teresa DeWalt and Christin Swearingin. August was preceded in death by his son, Al Galiano.

In lieu of flowers the family has requested for donations to be made to the food pantry of St. Rose of Lima Parish.

A Funeral Mass for August Galiano will be held at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church on Monday February 27,

2023 at 10:00am.