Don Wright Conley, 91 of Parkville, MD (formerly of Fallston, MD) died February 28 at Oak Crest Retirement Community. He was the grandson of A.D.Wright,whomade the Oklahoma Run into Chandler and established Wright’s Drug Store in the 1890s.
Mr. Conley was a retiredAerospace Engineer from Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, where he was employed by the Army Test and Evaluation Command from 1966 to 1988. He was also a flight instructor with theAPG flying club. Prior to living in Maryland, he lived in Absecon, NJ, where he was employed by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Experimental Center (1959-1966).
Mr. Conley was born May 9, 1933, in Chandler, Oklahoma.HewaseducatedintheChandlerschools and attended Oklahoma State University, where he graduated as a mechanical engineer. Upon graduation from college, he attended the U.S. Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI, where he was commissioned as an ensign and later assigned to a fighter squadron. He was released from active duty in 1959 and spent the next 17 years in the Naval Air Reserves at the Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, NJ, where he was the commanding officer of two separate reserve units. He retired from the Naval Air Reserves in 1979 with the rank of captain.
Mr. Conley is survived by his wife Barbara (nee Cavalli) Conley; two sons, John of Pittsville, MD and Michael of San Diego, CA; three daughters, DonnaNevilleofBelAir,MD,KarenTrionfoofDel Ray Beach, FL and Lori Remeto of Bel Air, MD; nine grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.