Yeager says Gallegos was more than an individual; he was an integral part of his Las Vegas survey crew. Born on Oct. 2, 1959, in Hawthorne, Nev., Gallegos graduated from Mineral County High School in 1977. He worked his way up from a highway construction aide to that of supervisor 3 in a Las Vegas survey crew and obtained his registration as a Nevada PLS in 1997. Gallegos managed a Location Division satellite office in Las Vegas since 1994. He was instrumental in establishing the Las Vegas control network NDOT used in the Las Vegas Valley and Clark County during his management. He was also involved in the 1999 re-observations of the National Geodetic High Accuracy Reference Network (HARN) for the southern Nevada area.

Gallegos was an active member of the Nevada Association of Land Surveyors. “Gallegos was always cheerful and helpful to other engineers and surveyors from private firms and other government entities by answering questions or helping to get them control data for our network,” Yeager says. Overall, Gallegos worked for the state of Nevada for 21 years.