Robert Leland Conroy,  Eulogy:

My dad’s parents were poor Irish immigrants that settled in that harsh rocky high desert of central Oregon. If they didn't start out poor, like most immigrants, they got that way by the time the ships and trains and horses brought them to the promised land of bountiful Oregon.  

Dad’s birth certificate reads Shaniko, Oregon... The Ranch was located at the end of a rocky 5-mile driveway off the Bakeoven road halfway between Shaniko and Maupin.  

He went to a one room Schoolhouse in Bakeoven. He rode his horse to school. 

He had a Boy Scout merit badge in horseshoing and sheepshearing. 

He attended St. Mary’s boarding school in The Dalles.  In the summer they ran sheep up into the meadows around Ollalie Lake. Dad learned to pack mules herd sheep and cook during those summers.  He developed a fondness and awareness for the land that later helped him find a lost girl in the canyons between the Ranch and Mt. Hood. By then he had developed a sense that one of the most important characters a man could have was to help a neighbor in need. 

In 1940, well into the depression, dad’s father had a heart attack. Dad was 18 years old. He had to drive him to The Dalles. All the doctors in town were gone to a convention.  His dad died.  He had an older sister Patricia and twin 12-year-old younger brothers.  

He entered the army during WW2. The military made a huge impression on dad’s character. 

In basic training his commanding officer ran drills to see how fast the men could get out off the barracks and into formation. After a try or two that was too slow, they were yelled at to get out there 30 seconds faster no matter what it took. One of the men in his haste ran straight through a screen door and tore it off its hinges.   The commanding officer was duly impressed. “Now that’s the way to run an operation!” “No screen door is going to keep us from getting the job done!” This must have made a big impression on dad. "Get the job done" and “Precision operation” became his mantra ever since.  

In WW2 dad was in the 10^th Mountain Division supplying food and material to the front lines in Northern Italy.  

When he returned home from the war dad attended Oregon State College (now known as OSU). The campus was so crowded with men returning from the war that there were tents and quonset huts erected to house them.  

Dad always sought out the best in all he did. True to this nature, he courted the president of the AAA sorority, Kay Lorang. Dad and mom were married in 1948 and a year later he completed college with a bachelor of science in Food Science, and a masters degree in Agricultural Economics. 

Dad’s first job was with the Birdseye Company in Richmond Virginia. In 1950 Bob and Kay had their first daughter Marlene. Dad was looking to return to Oregon. In 1951 a friend and superior army officer asked dad what he planned to do. Dad told him he wasn’t sure, he had planned to go back to Oregon. This officer told dad he Would Not Be Doing That. He would stay in Richmond as a Food Purchasing Officer to support the Korean Conflict. Dad always said, “What could I do? It was a direct order!” They promoted him to captain and he stayed for 18 months. In truth he stayed because they needed him. Dad never left someone in need. 

Two more daughters later in 1955 dad Started Conroy Packing Company.   A week or two and 50 gallons of paint and sweat later they had transformed a dilapidated old co-op building into a somewhat less old dilapidated berry processing building.  With the help of friends like Howard Mcglaughlin they gradually transformed that facility over the next few years into an impressive operation.  

Dad had a passion for numbers and math.   He took statistics in college.  As the operation grew over the following years his computations in pen could be seen written in numerous and surprising places. Calculations could be found anywhere from berry hallocks to 6x10 roof trusses, to dock boards and just about anywhere on a wall, ………and even on his hand.  Later he got himself an office with a chair and note pad. 

Dad had to have the best and latest technology for his work

He was champing at the bit when desktop electronic calculators and computers were finally invented. He bought the very first of each, just as he had purchased one of the first suitcase mobile phones in 1957!……… Later he replaced the ineffective suitcase phone with a Motorola two way radio system.  He installed a 30’ repeater antenna on his house and another on the tallest fir tree he could find in the west hills. He rented that tree for $10 a month.  He sent Howard McGlaughlin 100’ up the tree to install that antenna.  

He was very big on being accessible at all times.  The Conroy home was “Logan Base”. The cannery was “Marion Base”. Then there were the “Marion” and “Logan” mobile units.  All conversations were strictly business because of FCC rules. A conversation would go something like this: “Marion 1 to Logan base I have picked up the passengers and we are returning to base.” Translated this meant “I picked Brian up at Boy Scouts, we’ll be home in a few minutes. Is dinner ready?” 

From this modest beginning, there was no looking back. In 1960 (another daughter and a son later) he added a 30’x50’ cooler and more modern processing lines. A year later (and another son later) he added another cooler. By now he had contracts with several major national food buyers and a wonderful relationship with a group of quality conscious growers. 

Dad had a unwavering concentration on product quality

Dad’s focus was always to buy the highest quality and sell only the best. He had to be sure that the quality of the product he packed was well considered the “best on the market”. The business was successful. That year they broke a bottle of champagne on the new cooler and popped a champagne cork in the office that left a dent in the ceiling that stayed there for 30 years until a remodel.  

Over the years he had an almost fanatical focus on the quality and efficiency of the processing plant.

He bought only the best Allen Bradley electrical equipment. He knew he could not afford process breakdowns in the critical processing season.  When other processors were paving their yards with blacktop dad spent extra money and paved the entire lot in concrete so that he could buy hard tired Hyster lift trucks. This way the lift trucks wouldn’t bounce and hurt the fruit integrity. Furthermore the Hysters could travel faster and thus more efficiently on concrete.   And the forks wouldn’t move when the Hyster entered a pallet. This prevented accidents and saved time.  He built a "Precision Operation"

He was passionate about efficiency. He talked about time and motion studies and he focused on energy efficiency.  When he built the largest of the coolers he had 2 by 4 fir boards installed between the steel purlings and the steel building skin to give more room for insulation and to prevent heat from conducting through the contacting metal. Still, after construction he bought a special temperature probe to read the temperature conductivity through the steel siding screws. He had to know how well his plan had worked. 

Promptness was very important to dad

He routinely showed up 1 hour early for all appointments. It was disrespectful to be late. This didn’t bother anyone…. (much). He most often spent the extra time helping people set up for a meeting or whatever was needed. This is one way he came to know so many people in the industry. 

Dad had a lifelong roll involved in agricultural affiliations.    He always participated with OSU and their research and extension work, and he was involved at the start with The Northwest Canners and Freezers work with processing and marketing.  In 1968 dad was elected the President of the Northwest Canners and Freezers.  

In 1970 Bob added IQF. IQF stood for Individual Quick Frozen. This was a major investment of over a hundred thousand dollars for him, a decision he no doubt lost some sleep over. (That was over $100k in 1970!) He was the first in the valley to individual quick freeze berries in large volumes.  The uniqueness and quality of the final product was a success and the business grew.  In 1980 dad again stuck his neck out and spent over $200K to double his processing capacity. Again, this was successful. So two years later he built another cooler. No messing around again, this cooler was 80’x100’. And it was built with money at 21% interest! (Remember those years?) 

Dad was a leader in International food trade

After the last expansion and with all this capacity he needed more customers. Fortunately the Japanese economic boom of the 80’s brought them to our shore for the renowned Oregon Strawberries.  They came to visit once in 1984 and demanded that dad visit to see Japan that fall.  He came back from Japan with a passion to process for their markets. They required berries twice as clean as we were processing. In order to meet their standards dad bought some of their washing equipment and had it shipped from Japan and added it to his process lines. Then came the Japanese customers. 10 of them came from one company and 4 each from two other companies. This was just the start. This boom lasted a few years until about 1989, when the Japanese economic balloon began to deflate. Dad made many friends in Japan. When 5 of them came to visit ant tour Oregon, they could not believe the size of the Columbia River!  Dad took them on a jet boat trip up the rapids of the Deschutes (something he had been doing for 25years) They were absolutely white knuckle terrified and they loved that trip. They soothed there nerves with a drink or two at Timberline Lodge. 

In   1990 dad sold Conroy Packing to Kerr Concentrates, IFF.

He Consulted for Kerr for 10 years. 

During those 10 years he spent even more time focusing on his contributions to the industry

He passionately devoted a great deal of his time to: 

The Oregon Raspberry Blackberry Commission

The Northwest Small Fruits Research Center  &

The OSU Agricultural Research Foundation 

Early in those years he was presented an award for the “Oregon Agricultural Businessman of the Year” 

In 1999 the Raspberry Blackberry Commission gave him an award for his dedication. It was called the “Bob Conroy Award” and it was probably only fitting that he was the first annual recipient. The commission has presented the Bob Conroy award every year since to the most deserving industry contributors. In 2003 dad was awarded a “Lifetime Achievement” award by the OSU Agricultural Research Foundation 

Dad even made time for a couple other affiliations: He was the captain of The Portland Power Boat Squadron and a lifelong member of the 10^th Mountain Division. 

Through all these years dad and mom raised a family of 7 children.   All of us worked for dad for some amount of time. Dad wasn’t easy to work for. He was demanding. But because of it all of us children had the opportunity to learn a work ethic centered on quality and dedication. 

Through all the years dad’s only recreation was fishing. He dedicated himself to the perfection of that craft, as he did with all things. In the early years he fished many of the lakes in central Oregon. But from 1970 on he had only one fishing passion and that was the Deschutes River of his childhood.  He logged well over 200 jet boat trips up the 13 miles of rapids above Maupin. He had a couple of harrowing trips in there. I was with him on a trip in 1984. At the crack of dawn, while trying to avoid disturbing a fisherman, he steered the aging wood boat into the 3' standing waves in the center of the river. The boat rose up off the crest of a wave and crashed on the next. The boat broke in half right in the middle of the river. Dad managed to run the boat up on shore and everyone got safely on land.  He didn’t get excited… (as he was known to on occasion)……He stared at the sinking boat and said. “Hmm… I guess its time to get an aluminum boat”.  

But all these stories and qualities are familiar to most of you.

What you may not know, but might suspect, is that dad was always a Good Samaritan.  

v     He used his horsemanship and tracking skills as a young man to find a lost girl in the Canyons in Tygh Valley 

v     He ALWAYS stopped to help stranded motorists. Often he took them home and helped arranged towing 

v     He used his 2-way radio to call for help on the road where ever he saw need. 

v     On many occasions he would trail a drunk driver and call home on the radio, and have Kay call the police. He would follow the car until the police arrived. Between Woodburn and Portland the drunk drivers never had a chance.  

v     More than once he used his Jet Boat to rescue people and livestock on the flooding Pudding River. 

v     He often loaned growers his own money to get their crops in. 

v     He often contributed to college scholarship funds 

One of the things dad was most proud of though was that over the years, in addition to his own children, he had the opportunity to help hundreds of kids put themselves through college. He had so much respect for education and he paid well enough in the cannery that the income was truly a tremendous help to students. 

You better not have asked dad for help unless you meant it. Because he was there and he stuck with you until the job was done. 

Our dad : Shepherd,  Mule packer,  Soldier,   Scholar, Entrepreneur, Loving brother, Father, and Husband. 

God Bless his soul.

CHILDREN'S COMMENTS, oldest to youngest

Marlene's Comments:

My Dad. There were times he could get angry or impatient, cantankerous. But  most of all for me my Dad was one to always take care of everyone, to do the right thing, to bring a sense of greatness to everything I do.

In 2002 Dad started getting Altheimers symptoms and he and my mom moved to assisted living. It was very hard to watch him go through that. I’m sure it was very bewildering for him. And he got more and more helpless. The thing that amazed me was how easily he seemed to adapt sometimes. When he could no longer do things, he would let Mom, my sister or I do things for him and didn’t fuss about it. And in spite of his condition, he continued to watch for when other people needed the door opened for them, or if someone needed help in getting a cup of coffee. He didn’t know what he was eating for dinner, but he knew if someone was missing at dinner. He could look around the room and tell me who was missing. There was one older man Les, who Dad particularly watched out for. He always opened the door or got Les’ coffee. Once when he didn’t come down for dinner, and the nurses calling or going up to his room didn’t make any difference, Dad went up to his room and the man came down with him to dinner.

Shaun's Comments:

I remember dad most in the times he surprised us by being more than we expected him to be.

Diane's Comments:

Sharon's Comments:

After college, I came back to work for dad as a Field Rep. I was very insecure in my work as I thought I didn't know anything. I was scared to walk into Dad's office and tell him that I couldn't do the job right because I didn't know anything. He said, "Oh, that's okay, nobody knows what they are doing in their work. Look at so and so at Smuckers, or so and so at the County extension, and even me. Nobody really knows what they are doing." I walked out and was able to perform my job for four more years.

Brian's Comments:

My dad taught by example.

What I learned from him, is that one person (me or you), if we live like that, over the course of a lifetime We can build Something Special and have a huge and positive influence on an awful lot of people.

Jim's Comments:

My daughter Maggie helped me with this. I'm sure Ethan would've too if he had known what we were doing.
I had a lot of things I wanted to say...

About how my dad was a true gentleman and he taught me to stand up when a lady enters the room. And for goodness sakes, get her a chair.

About how he certainly could make someone feel welcome, but at the same time, if the situation arose, was well versed about how to tell someone to take a hike.

About yet another good samaritan story, when he heard that a farmer had accidently dusted his entire crop with the wrong thing, he enlisted Dan, me, and himself to walk through the field and gently brush off the leaves.

About the value of being the first one there in the morning to get the doors unlocked, start the fire, and get things ready for when everyone else showed up.

When I was writing this my daughter wanted me to stop and play with her so she said "Dad, just say I love you."

I love you, Dad.

Dan's Comments:

Dad

when I hold my children’s hand.

Elise & Shannon (Grandchildren)

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