Sonoma Academy music director dies in car crash

William “Doug” Gallagher, a beloved music director at Sonoma Academy, died Sunday in a car crash off Highway 1.

The private high school in Santa Rosa canceled all classes Monday so that students and staff could mourn the loss of the 52-year-old teacher, a Santa Rosa resident who created the music program when he arrived at Sonoma Academy in 2003. He had taught or interacted with almost all the students in the close-knit, 275-student school.

Gallagher’s black Saab was found shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday, sheriff’s Sgt. Cecile Focha said in a statement. It was at the bottom of a tall cliff, at an area called High Point north of Jenner. Someone called 911 after witnessing the car travel over the edge, Focha said. Another witness scrambled down the steep embankment to try to help. Gallagher’s body was found about 150 feet away and he was pronounced dead at the scene, she said. The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said the death was under investigation but would not say whether it was being investigated as a suicide. However, according to CHP spokesman Jon Sloat, there was a radio alert - a be on the lookout or BOLO - before the accident about a driver who might be suicidal.

“The (broadcast) was for a potential suicide from San Francisco,” Sloat said. “We got the call about the crash and went out there where we confirmed that the license plate matched the BOLO alert. At that point, we turned the incident over to the Sheriff’s Office.”

School officials, students and parents reacted to the news with a flood of condolences and memories of Gallagher, who was remembered as a dynamic, passionate and caring teacher.

“I’m just so sad, so surprised by it all,” said Mara Lee Ebert of Sonoma, whose two sons attended the academy. “He always had such a huge smile on his face, he was involved with every kid at the school. He added extra flair to everything he did.”

Her younger son, 16-year-old Connor Ebert, thought he hated music instruction until he took an introductory class with Gallagher, she said.

By the end of the class, he had learned to play the bongo drum and ukulele and had requested a ukulele for his birthday, an instrument he still plays two years later.

Connor Ebert said he’d been inspired by Gallagher’s passion for music and how much fun he had playing himself.

“He made it such an easy learning experience,” he said.

Gallagher tailored his classes to students’ needs and interests, school officials said. This year, his classes included A Capella Choir and History of Rock and Roll.

“He was one of the most incredibly skillful teachers I’ve ever met,” Janet Durgin, head of school at Sonoma Academy, said in a statement. She described him as a “true genius” who created “extraordinary, completely original, interdisciplinary, large-scale, multimedia productions that were unique and produced at far beyond a high school level.”

Last year, he adapted Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” into a musical production complete with student-composed rap and rock ’n’ roll songs and giant puppets, said Lily Thompson, a spokesperson for the academy.

“He believed everyone had music in him,” she said.

In addition to teaching, Gallagher was a talented musician, Thompson said. He starred in musicals and operas in Sonoma County and performed around the Bay Area with his group Banda Sin Nombre.

Before coming to Sonoma Academy, he taught music at Willow Wood Waldorf School in Sebastopol and before that spent 10 years with his wife and four daughters - now adults - in Costa Rica, where he taught voice and music, his mother Louann Gallagher said.

“He loved music since the time he was a little kid,” she said, adding that he was always singing, whether it was in church choir or high school chorus.

While classes were canceled Monday at Sonoma Academy, the school held an afternoon gathering to provide support for students, Thompson said. The school plans to bring grief counselors in when classes resume today and in the weeks ahead.

Benjamin Mertz, an adjunct music teacher who worked closely with Gallagher, will assume his course load.