About the authors
Patrick Gallagher, author of Leaving a Legacy: Reedy Fossum and the Aberdeen Smitty’s, was born in Redfield, South Dakota, in 1960. He grew up in Redfield, graduating from Redfield High School in 1979. In 1983, he graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.A. in American Studies. After college, he lived in the Washington, D.C. area for several years working in educational media and public relations. In 1998, he returned to South Dakota to work as the Development Officer for the Aberdeen Catholic School System in Aberdeen and in 2016 took the position of Resource Development Director for GROW South Dakota, a statewide community development organization. In 2020, he joined the South Dakota Community Foundation as a Community Development Coordinator.
Gallagher has published numerous essays and nonfiction articles on a freelance basis in a variety of local, state and national publications and online sites, including Notre Dame Magazine, America Magazine, South Dakota Magazine, and Aberdeen Magazine. Leaving a Legacy: Reedy Fossum and the Aberdeen Smitty’s, published in 2025, is his third authored book, two nonfiction and one children’s fiction. He has also edited and assisted in development of two other nonfiction books.
Gallagher and his wife live in Aberdeen. They have four grown children and three grandchildren.
Dan Holdhusen was originally from South Dakota and proudly calls Aberdeen his birthplace and home. Leaving a Legacy: Reedy Fossum and the Aberdeen Smitty’s, was inspired by a baseball reunion that Dan attended in 2021. It was organized by several former Smitty’s players, and Dan was inspired by seeing so many team and players’ pictures, and hundreds of newspaper articles that were hauled to the reunion
by Reedy Fossum’s family members and others to share at the event. Most had been housed in cardboard boxes in basements across the country, were faded and smelled like mold and mildew from years of storage.
Seeing those encouraged Dan to collaborate with Patrick Gallagher, a local writer from Aberdeen, SD, and a self-proclaimed baseball aficionado, to produce the book.
Dan is the father of two grown boys, four grandkids, two dogs, and six grand dogs. He married his high school sweetheart, Joannie. They have been together for fifty-five years and retired and moved to the Kansas City metro area, where they have lived for the past fifteen years. His childhood memories were filled with baseball stories. His grandfather is a member of the South Dakota Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame, and his father loved playing baseball as a kid. His father played for the Smitty’s in the mid-1940s, and it was his dream to see Dan follow in his footsteps. Dan was fortunate enough to play for Coach Reedy Fossum and the legendary Aberdeen Smitty’s in the late-1960s.
Researching and producing Leaving a Legacy has offered Dan the opportunity to meet and reunite with many former players, coaches, and fans. This project was a true labor of love.