Fighting back in the Upper Peninsula

In Ironwood at the western edge of the U.P., Pat Gallinagh has made the battle against suicide personal. It’s his mission to save as many lives as possible in this sparsely settled region from the impulse that nearly took his life.

He twice attempted suicide in 1971, dark moments following his glory days as a starting lineman for Michigan State University’s 1966 national champion football team.

“I had gone into a deep depression,” he recalled.

The first time, he stepped up on a chair, put a noose around his neck and took one step off – before changing his mind. His second attempt, a few months later, underscored the dangers of mixing prescription drugs and alcohol.

Related: After three student suicides, one Michigan school district fights back

Related: A Michigan mother finds solace in schools’ response after son’s suicide

After hours of drinking, combined with medication he was taking for depression, he said he drove his car late at night toward a dock leading to the frigid waters of Lake Superior. He woke up in the morning 50 yards off the road, “lucky,” he said, “that I didn’t hit a tree or kill someone.”

Gallinagh was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed medication that stabilized him, putting him on track for a productive life. Retired from Ironwood Area Schools after three decades of teaching, he now steers a nonprofit area suicide prevention organization.

“We want to save anyone we can,” he said.

His group takes an all-of-the-above approach to suicide prevention: Distributing drop-off boxes for prescription drugs, leaving literature on steps people can take to prevent suicide, and bringing speakers to area high schools and colleges. The guest speaker list includes Kevin Hines, who in 2000 survived a jump off the Golden Gate Bridge.

From his own experience, Gallinagh can testify that a decision to try suicide is often rash and impulsive.

“It’s not like you wake up in the morning and say, ‘I’m going to commit suicide today.’”

Lifelong Ironwood resident Delores Baross also knows the anguish of suicide.

Her father shot himself in the hayloft of a barn when she was 12. Her son, Danny, shot himself with his hunting rifle in 2009, distraught after a night of hard drinking over the breakup of his marriage.

Delores Baross also chose to fight back.

She helps organize an annual softball tournament in her son’s name that has raised more than $20,000 for suicide awareness. Along with other volunteers, she cleans a two-mile stretch of U.S. 2 marked by a sign, “In Loving Memory of Danny Baross.”

In Gogebic County, where she lives, the suicide rate is 10th highest in Michigan. She recalled several area deaths, including two prisoners who hung themselves in the county jail, the son of a nursing home owner and, over the years, perhaps a half dozen acquaintances of her son.

“Some of them are about drinking. Some of them were boyfriend-girlfriend breakups. They aren’t all inebriated. One I know just went home and shot himself.