Roger T. Conway

Roger Townsend Conway, Sr., age 86, passed away peacefully surrounded by family on July 29, 2024 in Bridgeport, CT. He was born on February 28, 1938.

Roger spent his childhood in Drexel Hill, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. He excelled both academically and athletically from a very early age. He went on to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, where he was a standout player on the men’s football team, and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity. At university, Roger also discovered his love of English and American literature.

From there he went on to his first teaching job as a high school English teacher in Cleveland. Teaching would become Roger’s lifelong passion. After completing his graduate studies at NYU, he moved to Connecticut in 1972 and became a member of the English Department faculty at Southern Connecticut State University.  Roger was a faculty member at Southern for 39 years, over which time he had an enormous impact on the university and its students. He loved the English language in all of its forms. He wrote poems, short stories, blogs, letters to the editors, and lyrics. 

His other great joy was being with nature and observing and celebrating all forms of life – big and small. One of his favorite pastimes was wandering through the yard of his home in Trumbull, CT with one of his ten grand or great-grandchildren and naming each bird they saw, or the role of the insects on every plant in his garden.

Roger was preceded in death by his parents, Wayne and Jeanette Conway, his sister Sue Barton and brother, Wayne Conway, Jr., and his beloved daughter Heather Liberman Smith and son  Roger T. (Hope) Conway, Jr. He is survived by his devoted wife Andrea Conway; his daughter Kirsten (Seth) Mason; his son Andrew (Kristen) Conway; and many cherished friends and family from the community he called home for nearly 40 years. 

A remembrance service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers please consider making a donation in Roger’s name to the Connecticut Audubon Society: https://www.ctaudubon.org/donate-memorial-or-tribute-gifts/

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