Donald Patrick Conroy was born on October 26, 1945, and died on March 4, 2016. He was an American author who wrote many well-received novels and memoirs. His books The Water Is Wide, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, and The Great Santini were made into films. The films The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini were nominated for Academy Awards. Conroy is considered an important writer in American Southern literature from the late 20th century.
Early life
Patrick "Pat" Conroy was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the oldest of seven children (five boys and two girls) and the son of Marine Colonel Donald Conroy from Chicago, Illinois, and Frances "Peggy" Peek from Alabama. His father was a Marine Corps fighter pilot, and Conroy moved often during his childhood, attending 11 different schools by age 15. He did not have a hometown until his family settled in Beaufort, South Carolina, where he completed high school. During his senior year, he studied under Ann Head, who influenced his future writing. Conroy attended The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, in Charleston, where he graduated from the Corps of Cadets with a major in English.
Conroy said his stories were strongly shaped by his childhood, which included challenges from his father, a U.S. Marine Corps pilot who was physically and emotionally abusive to his children. The struggles of growing up in a difficult environment are shown in his novels, which include real-life experiences, especially in The Great Santini and The Prince of Tides. While living in Orlando, Florida, Conroy’s fifth-grade basketball team won against a team of sixth graders. For more than 12 years, sports became his main way to express emotions. Conroy also said that his family’s frequent moves due to military service and growing up in a military culture had both positive and negative effects on his life.
A top athlete, Conroy was recruited to The Citadel to play basketball. His 2002 book My Losing Season described his experiences during his senior year of basketball and, like The Lords of Discipline, reflected on his time as a cadet at the college.
Writing career
After graduating from The Citadel's Corps of Cadets, Pat Conroy's time at the school influenced two of his most famous works: the novel The Lords of Discipline and the memoir My Losing Season. My Losing Season describes his senior year on The Citadel's basketball team, which played the longest game in Southern Conference history against Virginia Military Institute in 1967, winning in quadruple overtime.
Conroy's first book, The Boo, is a collection of stories about life at The Citadel, focusing on Lt. Colonel Thomas Nugent Courvoisie, who served as Assistant Commandant of Cadets from 1961 to 1968. Courvoisie inspired the character Colonel Thomas Berrineau, known as "The Bear," in The Lords of Discipline. Conroy began writing The Boo in 1968 after learning that Courvoisie had been removed from his position and given a warehouse job. He used money from a bank loan to self-publish the book.
After graduating, Conroy taught English in Beaufort, South Carolina, where he met and married Barbara Jones, a young mother who was pregnant with her second child. He later taught in a one-room schoolhouse on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina. Conroy was fired after his first year for refusing to use corporal punishment and for not respecting school leaders. He later wrote The Water Is Wide about his teaching experiences. The book earned him a humanitarian award from the National Education Association and an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. It was adapted into a film, Conrack, in 1974, and a Hallmark television version in 2006.
In 1976, Conroy published The Great Santini, a novel about Colonel "Bull" Meecham, a Marine fighter pilot who mistreats his family. The character is based on Conroy's father, Donald. According to My Losing Season, Donald Conroy was even harsher than the character in the book. The novel caused tension within the Conroy family, who felt Conroy had revealed private family matters. However, the book eventually improved his relationship with his father, who changed his behavior to show he was not like the character in the story. Conroy's father often signed his books with the note, "I hope you enjoy my son's latest work of fiction," underlining the word "fiction" multiple times. The novel was adapted into a film in 1979, starring Robert Duvall.
The publication of The Lords of Discipline in 1980 upset many of Conroy's fellow Citadel graduates, who felt the book portrayed the school unfairly. The novel was adapted into a film in 1983. The conflict with graduates was resolved in 2000 when Conroy was awarded an honorary degree and asked to deliver a commencement speech.
In 1986, Conroy published The Prince of Tides, a novel about Tom Wingo, a South Carolina teacher who helps his sister in New York City. The book was made into a film in 1991, directed by Barbra Streisand, and was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
In 1995, Conroy published Beach Music, a novel about an American living in Rome who returns to South Carolina after learning his mother is seriously ill. The story explores themes of personal struggle, including the suicide of his wife and a custody battle with his in-laws.
In 2002, Conroy published My Losing Season, detailing his final year as a basketball player for The Citadel Bulldogs. In 2004, he released The Pat Conroy Cookbook, a collection of recipes paired with stories from his life. In 2009, he published South of Broad, set in Charleston, South Carolina, and centered on the aftermath of a suicide.
In 2013, Conroy became editor-at-large of Story River Books, a fiction division of the University of South Carolina Press. That same year, he published The Death of Santini, a memoir about his difficult relationship with his father until his father's death in 1998.
Conroy was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame on March 18, 2009.
Military brat cultural identity and awareness movement
Conroy was a big supporter of journalist Mary Edwards Wertsch’s research and writing about the hidden subculture of American military brats. These are children from families where both parents work in the military. They often move from place to place, live deeply within the military community, and may experience the effects of war.
In 1991, Wertsch started the movement to recognize the cultural identity of military brats with her book Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood inside the Fortress. While researching the book, she interviewed more than 80 children from military families. She found common experiences, such as the challenges they face, their strengths, and the unique culture they share. Although the book is not a scientific study, later research has supported many of her findings.
Conroy wrote a ten-page essay about growing up in the military, including his own childhood. He included this essay in Wertsch’s book, where it served as the introduction. In it, he wrote:
Her book uses a language that feels familiar and powerful to me, even though I never realized I knew it. She shows how American military brats form a new kind of subculture with our own traditions, ways of growing up, and ways of communicating. This book surprised me and helped me understand a part of my family I never knew existed.
Conroy also allowed his work to be used in the award-winning documentary Brats: Our Journey Home, directed by Donna Musil. The film aims to help the public learn more about military brats and support their understanding of themselves.
The documentary ends with a quote from Conroy about how the military brat subculture is not widely known. He wrote, “We spent our entire childhoods in the service of our country, and no one even knew we were there.”
Personal life
Conroy was married three times. His first wife was Barbara (née Bolling) Jones. They married on October 10, 1969, while Conroy was teaching on Daufuskie Island. Barbara had been Conroy’s neighbor in Beaufort, South Carolina. She became a widow after her first husband, Joseph Wester Jones III, a fighter pilot in Vietnam, was killed in an accident. At the time of her husband’s death, Barbara had one daughter, Jessica, and was pregnant with their second child, Melissa. After marrying Barbara, Conroy adopted both girls. The couple later had a daughter named Megan. They divorced in 1977.
In 1981, Conroy married Lenore (née Gurewitz) Fleischer. He became the stepfather to her two children, Gregory and Emily. The couple also had a daughter together. Conroy dedicated his 2010 book, My Reading Life, to this daughter, writing, “This book is dedicated to my lost daughter, Susannah Ansley Conroy. Know this: I love you with my heart and always will. Your return to my life would be one of the happiest moments I could imagine.” Conroy and Fleischer divorced on October 26, 1995, which was Conroy’s 50th birthday. In 1998, Conroy married his third wife, Cassandra King, a writer. He became the stepfather to her three children: Jim, Jason, and Jake.
A friend of Conroy, political cartoonist Doug Marlette, died in a car accident in July 2007. Conroy and Joe Klein gave speeches at Marlette’s funeral. Ten people in total spoke at the funeral. Conroy called Marlette his best friend and said, “The first person to cry, when he heard about Doug’s death, was God.”
Conroy lived in Beaufort with his third wife, Cassandra, until his death. In 2007, he said that Cassandra was a happier writer than he was. He explained, “I’ll hear her laugh at funny lines she writes. I’ve never laughed at any line I’ve written. None of it has given me pleasure. She writes with joy, and I sit in gloom and darkness.”
As an adult, Conroy struggled with depression. He had several breakdowns and thought about ending his life. He attempted suicide in the mid-1970s while writing The Great Santini.
Death
On February 15, 2016, Conroy wrote on his Facebook page that he was receiving treatment for pancreatic cancer. He died on March 4, 2016, at the age of 70. Conroy's funeral took place on March 8, 2016, at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Beaufort, South Carolina.
Pat Conroy is buried in St. Helena Memorial Gardens cemetery (Ernest Drive, Saint Helena Island 29920), near the Penn Center.
Legacy
The Pat Conroy Literary Center is located in Beaufort, South Carolina. It was started as a non-profit organization on March 19, 2016. The center keeps a collection of items that remember Pat Conroy's life and work. Its goal is to "continue his legacy in the coastal area where his stories began and beyond, while helping a strong literary community that shows Pat Conroy's love for the power of people's voices." In 2017, the center was named a Literary Landmark by the American Library Association. That same year, it became the first place in South Carolina to join the American Writers Museum as an affiliate.
The Pat Conroy Literary Center offers many educational programs and cultural events, such as an annual literary festival. Twice each year, authors of all types and experience levels can apply for the center's writer's residency. This program provides a cottage as a space for creative work.
George RR Martin, a famous author, has praised Pat Conroy's writing. He called Conroy "one of his favorite living novelists for many years" and said The Prince of Tides is "one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century" and one of his favorite books.