Eugene Dean Conley Jr.

After a 14-month battle with a Grade-IV glioblastoma brain tumor, Eugene Dean Conley, Jr. passed away peacefully on the night of January 17, 2019, surrounded by family at Powhatan Nursing Home in Falls Church, VA. There will be a Funeral Mass on Saturday, February 2, 11:00 AM at St. Luke Catholic Church, 7001 Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA 22101, followed by a reception onsite. All are welcome. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider a donation in memory of 'Dean Conley' to the American Brain Tumor Association (http://hope.abta.org/goto/edeanconleyjr) or Doctors Without Borders (https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org). “Dean” was born in Minneapolis on May 9, 1942, the first son of Eugene Dean Conley and Mildred (Casey) Conley. The family moved to Chicago, where his brother James was born in 1945, and where the Conley boys attended Hardey Prep for Boys (K-8) and Loyola Academy (9-12). Dean competed in Track & Field and Football at Loyola, where he graduated in 1960. In the summers, he attended Father Foley’s Camp for Boys in Minnesota and was a lifeguard at Chicago beaches. After graduation from Loyola, he enrolled at Georgetown University, where he participated in ROTC and rowed crew for four years, including as part of the JV crew that won gold at the Dad Vail Regatta in 1962. It was at Georgetown where he met the love of his life, Stephanie Farley, a nursing student from Grosse Pointe Park, MI, who was a year behind him in school. Their first date was to see the movie “West Side Story” at the Uptown Theatre in Washington, DC. After his graduation in 1964, he moved back to Chicago to enter the M.B.A program in Hospital Administration at the University of Chicago, but their separation did not last long. Once Stephanie graduated, they became engaged. They were married April 16, 1966. Dean and Stephanie Conley first lived together in Lexington, KY, where Dean was completing a residency at the University of Kentucky Hospital as part of his M.B.A program, and prior to his entering the Army Medical Service Corps. After a brief stint at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, the couple was stationed in Munich, West Germany, where they lived from 1966 to 1970, and where Dean was Adjutant of the 225th Station US Army Hospital. The couple welcomed two sons to the family while in Munich, Dean (1967) and Kyle (1969). After they moved back to the DC area, their third son, Neil, was born at Georgetown Hospital in 1971. They purchased their first and only home in the Langley Forest section of McLean, VA in 1972. While raising their young children, Stephanie pursued a JD at American University and Dean pursued a Ph.D. in Sociology from George Washington University. During his studies, he taught at Georgetown and GW, and performed consulting work, including for a friend who was starting a government services firm that would be called Maximus, Inc. He received his Ph.D. in 1984 and briefly taught at the University of Virginia before returning to Maximus full-time as a management consultant in the government services division. He remained at Maximus until he retired in 2010, leading national and international projects in healthcare, welfare services, and disaster preparedness. Dean was a lifelong learner who loved to read and do research. He was known to pursue certain topics that interested him in a thematic way and in great depth over many years, including Native American history, the American Civil War, Biblical and theological history, family history, and of course railroad history, occasionally submitting articles for publication. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus and a parishioner of St Luke Catholic Church in McLean, VA, where he was an usher at the 7:30am Sunday Mass. His faith meant a great deal to him. It was something at which he worked and studied, and it informed his worldview. It helped guide his engagement in a number of efforts to shape society in ways that he felt reflect empathy, respect and concern for others. He was not shy about supporting a cause he believed in, whether that meant joining the NAACP to register voters in the segregated South in the 1960s, or advocating for affordable quality healthcare and gun law reform in recent years. Motivated by his faith and his Irish ancestry, he had an affinity for the underdog and the downtrodden. He was inspired by his great uncle, Blessed Solanus Casey. Dean was a lifelong lover of trains and model trains, and maintained a significant collection at his home. He created a project he called “Hopes and Dreams” trains in which he would compile a model train with engine and cars selected to represent significant aspects of someone’s life. He was a patient teacher and could connect track pieces to make complex arrangements at the direction and with the aid of his nine grandchildren. He could also connect any subject to the topic of trains, and managed to steer many conversations in this direction. He enjoyed argumentation and debate with those he loved. He was known to give an impromptu lecture on a topic that caught his fancy, or recite poetry, including each April 18th, when he would recite Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride” from memory. He preferred to say “Greetings” instead of “Hello”. He could explain in detail why Gene Autry was superior to Roy Rogers. He was a Chicago Cubs fan and a Hoya basketball fan. He loved to travel. Dean was a superb artist and sketcher, a skill he honed in childhood classes at the Chicago Art Institute, and as the resident artist for Mask and Bauble and for the Crew while he was at Georgetown. He put his skills to good use in creating family Christmas cards for many years, in designing tinfoil and cardboard fighting gear for his young sons’ medieval play games, and in carving exquisitely detailed jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. When Stephanie was in charge of the Churchill Road Elementary School Spring Fair, Dean created an elaborate hat in the shape of a castle as an advertisement, which was worn by then-local weatherman Willard Scott on the evening news. Dean was perhaps less skilled at dancing, but he enjoyed practicing with Stephanie, and attending cruises and parties with their dance group. He was a student of photography. His fashion was all his own. His boys suspected he was driven by the desire to embarrass them, but he was impervious to ridicule. He was for many years in the 70s and 80s the “Starter” for the Langley Club swim team, roaming the swim deck with starter pistol in hand, wearing white shorts and shirt, and sandals with calf-high gray socks. Starting in the mid-70s, he sported a thick “Chicago” mustache; but, over the years, he gradually shaved more and more of it, from the top down, until, by the mid-90s, it was just a thin layer of hair resting on his upper lip, soon to disappear altogether, unnoticed. He was known to wear navy blue polyester pants virtually everywhere and for any occasion. Humility was an important trait to him; he didn’t take himself too seriously. Dean, Dad, PopPop was 76 years old when he died. He is already missed dearly by friends and family. Dean Conley is survived by his soulmate and wife of 52 years, Stephanie; by his sons: Dean, Kyle (Alexis), and Neil (Holly); by his grandchildren: Kelsey, Keira, Sarah, Sean, Rachel, Liam, Declan, Emmett, and MacKay; by his brother, Jim; and by many cousins and other family.