Daniel Conway Of Northampton Dies February 23

Daniel Conway of Northampton—husband of Connie Conway, chief of staff for Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman—died on February 23, 2017, at Stony Brook University Hospital after a long illness. He was 67.

Ms. Conway, his wife of 32 years, remembered Mr. Conway this week as a caring, funny man who was best known by friends and family for telling humorous stories. She recalled one tale in particular that he would often share from early in their marriage, when he wanted to drive her brand new convertible to impress clients while dropping off $10,000 worth of artwork to them.

“I come home from work, and he sits me down in his favorite chair, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, who died?’—because I don’t get to sit in his chair,” she recalled. “Then he said, ‘I had a little problem with the car today … I dropped it into the river.’”

Apparently, Ms. Conway explained, when he exited her car to make a phone call, he forgot to put the car in park.

“Some guy comes up to him and asks, ‘Hey, mister, is that your car?’” Ms. Conway said, laughing. “And he goes, ‘What do you mean?’ He turns around, and the car had rolled through the parking lot and into the river.”

Luckily, she said, her new convertible got caught on a branch near the river’s bank and, as a result, the engine was not fully submerged. The rear of the vehicle—as well as the art that had been stored there—was not so fortunate.

Ms. Conway said that story perhaps best encompassed her late husband’s ability to find humor in difficult situations.

Mr. Conway was born to John and Virginia Conway in Troy, New York on February 8, 1950. Though he did not play competitive sports, he always was adventurous and loved being outdoors, according to Susan Schenk, 64, of Westhampton, one of his four sisters. Ms. Schenk explained that she and her older brother maintained their close relationship by living close to one another as adults.

“We went to college right near each other, and he always watched out for me,” Ms. Schenk said. “That’s just who he was—very generous and protective of his sisters.”

Mr. Conway studied accounting and business at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and was co-owner of a manufacturing company in Boston before he and his wife decided to settle in Westhampton. When they moved to Long Island in the early 1990s, 
Mr. Conway worked in sales for two bus companies, Hampton Jitney and Medford-based Elite Transport. Although he loved working, Mr. Conway retired several years ago and battled liver disease issues for many years, according to his wife.

She explained that the two met at the wedding of Ms. Conway’s brother and his sister—and got married themselves three years later. In the mid-1990s, she said she was involved in a serious car accident, suffering a fractured skull and a brain injury, and that her husband helped nurse her back to health.

“He was always thinking of me more than himself,” she said. “He helped me back to life. He didn’t know if I was going to live or die, and he was right there. We just had a great life together.”

In addition to his wife, Mr. Conway is survived by four sisters, Terri Kerley of Clayton, Missouri, Leslie Sheldon of Groton, Massachusetts, Megan 
Desmarais of Vancouver, Canada, and Ms. Schenk of Westhampton, and a younger brother, Kevin Conway of Manhattan. He was predeceased by his parents.

In lieu of flowers, Mr. Conway’s family has set up a scholarship fund in his memory for students in the School of Journalism at Stony Brook University.