Gallagher attended the University of California, Davis, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1971. He then studied at UC Berkeley, completing an MBA in 1974. His long-standing ties to UC Davis were later recognised through significant philanthropic donations, including the naming of Maurice J. Gallagher Jr. Hall at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management following a ten-million-dollar gift.
Gallagher's career in commercial aviation began with the founding of WestAir in 1978, a commuter and regional airline that operated as a west-coast affiliate of United Airlines. He served as Vice President-Finance of the parent company from 1979 to 1982 and remained with WestAir Holding, Inc. as an executive and director until its acquisition by Mesa Air in 1992.
He was also a founding investor and board member of ValuJet Airlines, one of the predecessors to AirTran Airways, from its inception in 1993 until 1997. Between his ValuJet involvement and his later work at Allegiant, Gallagher founded Mpower Communications, a competitive local exchange carrier that went public in 1998.
The defining chapter of Gallagher's aviation career began in 2000 when he became the major creditor of a small, Fresno-based scheduled airline that had declared bankruptcy. He gained control of the airline through the bankruptcy process and became its CEO and Chairman. Under his leadership the airline relocated its headquarters to Las Vegas and adopted a business model built around flying older large commercial aircraft from smaller American cities to major leisure destinations — initially Las Vegas, and later Orlando, Phoenix, St Petersburg, Fort Lauderdale, and other markets. That airline became Allegiant Air, and the parent holding company Allegiant Travel Company grew into a publicly traded enterprise. Gallagher retired from the CEO position in September 2024 and subsequently assumed the role of executive chairman and chairman of the board.
Outside aviation, Gallagher founded GMS Racing, a NASCAR team that originated as a vehicle to support his son Spencer Gallagher's racing career in the ARCA Menards Series. The team grew into one of the major competitors in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and became Chevrolet's flagship truck team. GMS Racing delivered two Truck Series championships: Johnny Sauter won the title in 2016 and Sheldon Creed won it in 2020.
After the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, Gallagher acquired a stake in Richard Petty Motorsports from majority owner Andrew Murstein, and the combined entity was renamed Petty GMS Motorsports. In 2023, NASCAR Cup Series and IndyCar driver Jimmie Johnson purchased an ownership stake in the team, prompting another name change to Legacy Motor Club. GMS Racing's Truck Series operation did not merge into the Cup team and continued as a separate entity, though the team announced it would withdraw from the ARCA Menards Series in 2023 to concentrate resources on its Truck Series programme.
Gallagher has directed significant personal philanthropy toward UC Davis. In addition to the ten-million-dollar donation that resulted in the naming of Gallagher Hall, he and his wife endowed a chair at the Graduate School of Management. He delivered the commencement address for the UC Davis business school in 2011.
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