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 It is with great
regret and sorrow that we must notify you of the death of our classmate, Dan
Conner, on December 26, 2016, in Portland, OR, after a short, valiant battle
against inoperable lung cancer.
Dan is survived by
his wife, Renate, and their son, Paul.
Funeral services
will be held sometime in the early spring.
Condolences may be
sent to Renate at 93 Portland Avenue, P.O. Box 41, Manzanita, OR 97130-9069.
Well done,
Dan. Be thou at peace.
Remembrances:
Class Memorial Pages\M-2 Dan Conner.pdf
Obituaries:
Assembly/Taps Memorial Article:
Dan A. Conner 1961
Cullum No. 23723-1961 December 26, 2016| Died in Portland, OR Interment: Willamette National
Cemetery, Portland, OR
Dan Alan Conner grew up in an Army family and was interested
in attending West Point from an early age. He entered West Point from his
home in Oregon and always had a dream of someday returning to the Great
Northwest in retirement.
As a cadet, the music team of Dan Conner
and Earl Horan was a tradition in Company M-2. With Dan playing the steel
guitar and Earl playing the mandolin (both were comics in their own rights),
they gave their classmates many hours of good times. And these impromptu
performances often provided a welcome relief from the pressures at the
Academy.
Dan was friendly to everyone he met, had
a ready laugh and was never too busy for a good joke. He was quick to help a
friend or neighbor whenever the need arose. Recalling his cadet experiences
50 years after graduation, he highlighted two memories in particular: the
many trips with the Glee Club and having a bloody nose with every boxing
lesson with Mr. Palone.
Upon commissioning, Dan served in the
Infantry six years and the Corps of Engineers 14 years before retiring at
the rank of lieutenant colonel. His first assignment was with the 509th
Airborne Infantry Regiment, Fort Bragg, NC. Following Bragg, he served in
Germany with Headquarters, 8th Infantry Division (Support Command) in Bad
Kreuznach, where he met and married Renate.
With a deployment to Vietnam looming, Dan
and Renate made the best of the time by traveling every weekend (“every
Sunday another castle” and so many wonderful restaurants around Bad
Kreuznach to choose from). Dan played in a band that was headed by Kris
Kristofferson, the famous song writer and actor, at the Rod and Gun Club.
Dan deployed to Vietnam in 1966 as a
company commander in the 3d Battalion 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry
Division. His second tour in Vietnam was from 1969 to 1970 as executive
officer in the 19th Engineer Battalion. Their son Paul was born during Dan’s
second tour in Vietnam.
After Vietnam, Dan received his M.S. in
civil engineering from Oregon State University. Following this degree
program, he served as the deputy director of engineering, Pittsburgh
District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Once again returning to Germany, he
served as executive officer, 78th Engineer Battalion, and then commander of
the 14th Engineer Battalion. Dan served nine years overall in Germany.
Having been born and raised in Germany,
Renate was a natural travel guide for the family. She, Paul and Dan traveled
all over Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Spain and France, with Renate
enjoying all the antiquity and Dan enjoying the hiking.
His last assignment prior to retirement
was as deputy director of engineering, Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers. After military retirement, he joined the City Water Bureau in
Portland, OR for six years.
After full retirement, the urge to travel
continued to pull at Dan and Renate, and they decided to buy a sailboat.
What follows is one of the most amazing retirement stories one can imagine.
In his obituary Dan is quoted as having made the simple statement, “After
retiring, in 1988, Renate and I went to sea for seven years, traveling the
world in a 36-foot cutter.” The gravity of this statement was not fully
appreciated until discussions were held with Renate in preparation for this
article. With only a “two-man crew” (consisting of Dan and Renate), they
sailed across the Pacific Ocean, across the Indian Ocean, through the Red
Sea and into the Mediterranean, stopping for weeks at a time to see the
exciting sights along the way.
While sailing in the vicinity of New
Zealand and the waters around of Thailand, they weathered major storms,
coming very close to being caught in the Queens Day Storm of 1994, during
which 35 boats had set sail on a 1,000-mile trip from Auckland to the Tonga
region. En route, these boats encountered 10-meter waves, with gusts up to
70 miles per hour, resulting in the loss of one boat with three crew and the
largest sea rescue in the history of New Zealand. Dan and Renate could hear
the radio traffic of the rescue.
They flew back to Oregon about every year
and a half so Dan and Renate could “file their income tax and make sure
everything in their home was still in order.” They would stay home only a
few weeks, then fly back to where their sailboat was docked, be it in
Turkey, New Zealand or Israel.
Most of the serious travel urge was
satisfied after the seventh year of sailing. So, they sold their boat, the
Inertia, in Turkey. This was when Renate said she needed a garden. In the
years following the long trip, Dan and Renate continued to travel in their
pickup camper.
After returning from these travels, Dan
was involved for 14 years in a five-piece band called “The Floating Glass
Balls,” singing and playing the resophonic guitar, sometimes called the
Dobro. In addition, while still in the Portland District, he started
painting watercolors and won a big prize through an art exhibition in
Portland. In Renate’s eyes, Dan was a real Renaissance man.
—
Mike Hale, Classmate
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