Roy Arthur Gallant

RANGELEY – Roy Arthur Gallant passed away on August 12, 2025, at age 101, in Rangeley, Maine. He was born April 17, 1924 in Portland, Maine, to Edward Joseph Gallant and Lodi (nee Dutel) Gallant, where he attended Deering High School.

Over the course of his life he wrote 96 books on science for children and young adults on topics from Astronomy and Biology, Chemistry, Children Environmental sciences/Ecology, to Zoology. He was an active, licensed pilot for more than 75 years. A patriotic American, he served his country in WWII and the Korean War. He was a citizen of the world from being stationed in Japan to living in London in the publishing industry to traveling to the far reaches of Russia to research meteorite sites.

Gallant served as a flight navigator in WWII and worked in military intelligence during the Korean War. After WWII he received a B.A. from Bowdoin College, majoring in English, minoring in philosophy and science. He earned an M.S. in 1949 from Columbia and later taught English at Columbia. From the 1970’s to 1990s he flew commercial charter flights, often ferrying people between Rangeley and Portland. He also flew fire patrol over the Rangeley Lakes area.

Following his military service he began writing for magazines and book publishers including Boys Life, Science Illustrated, National Geographic and many others. His writing spanned 50 years, and introduced three generations of young readers to the world of science. He received the national Outstanding Science Book for Children award numerous times but was most proud of being the second recipient of the Maine Library Association’s Katahdin award. Begun in 1999, this lifetime achievement award recognizes an outstanding body of work of children’s literature in Maine.

In 1979 he became the Director of the Southworth Planetarium at the University of Southern Maine where he also taught in the English, Physics and Communications Departments. He served as Director and Adjunct Professor at USM for 20 years.

Gallant was an avid explorer of the natural world which led him to visit meteorite sites in Siberia, Russia. He was the first American ever to visit the Tunguska site of the 1908 meteorite catastrophe. In 2002 McGraw-Hill published “Meteorite Hunter”, a book based on his research and adventures in Siberia.

While his work took him from New York, to Tokyo to London, his heart led him to Rangeley, Maine, where he lived for 50 years. Drawn to Rangeley by the beauty of the lakes and the challenges of the ski mountain, he was active in many facets of the community, from flying firefighting missions to joining snowmobile festivities. He even owned and ran the local paper, the Rangeley Highlanders, for a period in the 1970s.

Roy Gallant leaves behind his wife Jeannine Dickey; sons Jonathan (Rosemary), James (Deb); grandchildren Melissa (Adam M.) Martha (Adam F.) Max and Evan; great grandchildren Oliver and Avery. Roy Gallant was predeceased by his wives Kathryn Dale Gallant Monroe and Harriet Cole Gallant.