Jeffrey Gale passed away May 20, 2026. He was born Dec. 13, 1946, and raised in Keyport, the son of Milton and Edith Gale. He worked his summers stocking the shelves at Gale’s Keyport Hardware.
He attended Rutgers Preparatory High School, became vice president of the student government, and planned the dances and hayrides. Jeffrey attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he was a proud member of Pi Lambda Phi. He served as his fraternity’s rush chairman for three years. English literature and fraternity parties became his double major.
After graduating from Suffolk Law School in 1972, he joined a small firm that had offices above his father’s hardware store. It was a slow beginning, but he loved being a lawyer.
In 1993, Jeffrey had his right leg amputated just below the knee. He struggled for six months while being fitted for a prosthesis and then pushed aside the pain to return to his law practice.
He constantly reinvented himself as a lawyer: 15 years handling personal injury cases, 10 years practicing matrimonial law and 25 years handling commercial and residential real estate developments.
Jeffrey became an active member and eventually the president of the Peninsula Soccer Club. He discovered that coaching a boys’ traveling soccer team was the best therapy for his continuing recovery from the amputation surgery. He looked forward to every practice and every tournament. The Blue Eagles will never know how important they were to his mental health and general well-being. In return, he tried to give every player the opportunity to score a goal or make a great play they could remember forever.
Jeffrey loved Broadway shows, Chinatown beef and bitter melon, and slept through more than one Italian opera at the Met. He was a hard-core Yankees fan with a signed Jeter jersey and a signed Judge bat, both prominently displayed in the captain’s corner in his office.
He enjoyed Shakespeare, tasting menus and interesting conversation. He spent time writing poems about his family and letters to the editor. One of his poems became the basis for “Macie’s Dance,” a musical collaboration with an old high school friend that honored his granddaughter. His writings captured special events and everyday happenings. He referred to these writings as his pictureless photo album of thoughts and memories.
At home, he was known to be sarcastic and unfiltered. His wife and children continued to appear at the annual Gale family timeshare vacations until his children started families of their own. These vacations took place anywhere and everywhere: the East Coast, the West Coast, Mexico and Europe. On each trip, he brought home a special something special, an ever-mounting treasure of memories.
Jeffrey is survived by his wife, Rhonda, a life partner in every sense, and his children and their spouses, Morgan (Nicole), Farris (John) and Jordan (Brooke), and by his beloved grandchildren, Macie, Evie, Josie, Gage, Mia and Riley.
In lieu of flowers, please hug and kiss your children and take your family to dinner at the restaurant of your choice. If Jeffrey were still around, he would have offered to pay.
The article originally appeared in the May 28 – June 3, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
