11/07/2025
On June 29th the beloved former editor of Radix, Sharon Gallagher passed away. For those of you who may not know, Sharon was instrumental (along with David Gill and others) to Radix Magazine (formerly "Right On!") from the mid-70s, serving as the publication's editor and a partner to New College Berkeley's executive director emerita Susan Phillips, into the late 2010s. Less known about Sharon is that she was one of the few women leaders to sign Ron Sider's Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern in 1973, championing the inclusion of language regarding the rights and concerns of women.
Sharon wrote more than 200 movie and book reviews not just for Radix but Sojourners, Eternity, the San Francisco Chronicle and other outlets—helping readers to see and understand through Christian eyes. Her more than 50 interviews with significant artists, musicians, political leaders, and theologians not only helped readers to get to know these interviewees but probed the theological issues raised by their work. A very partial list includes Bob Dylan, Garrison Keillor, Jacques Ellul, Madeleine L’Engle, Charles Colson, Wendell Berry, Anne Lamott, Mother Teresa, Mark Hatfield, Paul Stookey, Van Morrison, and Czeslaw Milosz.
In 2020, Sharon retired to a quiet and joyful life in Red Bluff, California, near her mother Dorothy (who died in 2024), her cousins Dave and Carla Siemens, and a large extended family. On Sunday evening, June 29, 2025, Sharon took her final breath and entered the presence of the Lord.
Rest in peace, dear sister Sharon. Well done, good and faithful servant.
