At the time of his death in 1988, he was the director of maintenance and transportation for the Chesapeake, Virginia, city school system, where he worked for almost 30 years. At the request of his widow, obituaries in local newspapers made no mention of his time with Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps. He is remembered principally for his influence on such guitarists as Eric Clapton, Brian Setzer, and Jeff Beck. The latter recorded an album of Gene Vincent songs, "Crazy Legs", in 1993 considered by music critics to be a tribute to Gallup and Vincent.