Robert Conroy

Robert Alexander Conroy was born in Cornwall, Ontario on the 28th day of September 1930. He was baptized a week later in Williamstown, Ontario. He passed away peacefully and comfortably under the attentive care of Chateau Gardens home staff in Lancaster on December 24, 2014.

Bob was the youngest of three boys, the second youngest of six kids of Hilda and Donald John Conroy. They grew up on a farm in Summerstown, not far from the St. Lawrence River in Glengarry County. His dad had passed away after a long illness when Bob was 13. Children had to grow up quickly.

He was 26 when he met Ursula Walsh. He was working with Ontario Hydro burrowing tunnels under Niagara Falls in a quest for electricity. She was teaching in Fort Erie. They were married in August 1957.

They had three children Rick (Kathleen) of Prince Edward County, Patti Grossman (Michael) of Slave Lake, Alberta and Steve (Laurie) of Cornwall. He was a doting Poppa to 12 grand-children and [four] great-grandchildren.

When Ontario Hydro’s ambition turned to harnessing the electricity generating power of the St. Lawrence River, whole communities had to be picked up and moved. Bob was proud of his role in the largest construction project of the day. Both the Queen of England and the President of the United States came for the opening.

Bob and Ursula built a new home on a hill on five acres overlooking glorious farmland stretching in every direction to the horizon. After the Seaway he worked on a variety of construction projects that took him across the province. Near the end of his career he worked with his brother-in-law Ronnie Menard (Jean) building roads and bridges.

He had great friendships and deep, enduring and sometimes complicated relationships with his brothers and sisters—whether a kilometre down the road or across the continent.

He was a joyful and positive influence to all who knew him. He could be crusty at times but these were temporary aberrations that arrived and slipped away in an instant.

When his children left home to build their own lives his marriage didn’t survive. The demands of raising a family had propelled them into different orbits. They were different people. Apart.

Years later he rekindled a romance with Audrey MacLeod. They had been high school sweethearts. Their lives had gone in different directions but in the early 1990s they found each other again. In June 2000, Bob and Audrey were married on a bright sunny day in Lancaster. Within a few years, however, Alzheimer’s disease began to rob Audrey of her memory and abilities. When he could no longer care for her, he visited nearly every day at Glen-Stor-Dun Lodge—even after the disease had stolen the person from the body. In 2012 it took her life.

He and Audrey loved to spend winters in Ajo, Arizona—the dry, warm desert eased his weakening lungs. He suffered a stroke there in February 2004 and could not return. He stayed in his home in Lancaster well after it was time for him to accept care.

In 2011, he agreed to move into Chateau Gardens Long Term Care Residence in Lancaster. He longed to live independently again—yet he valued the care, attention and services the home provided.

Friends and family may call at the M. John Sullivan Funeral Home at 341 Pitt Street in Cornwall between 7 and 9 p.m. on Sunday December 28. A service will follow at St. Andrews United Church in Williamstown at 11 am on Monday December 29, 2014. A reception will follow the service in the Irvine Hall beside the church.