Merton Conoley

Gilbert Conoley died with his family around him early in the morning of May 25.  Colleen was by his side just as she was for the last 65 years.  He was a deeply loved man who loved life, loved his community and loved the earth.  Gilbert appreciated the great and the small things and the people who know him felt this loving spirit.
 
Gilbert and his twin, Gillis, were born in south Texas on February 27, 1919.  His birth parents died in the flu epidemic; when they were six weeks old, they were adopted by Boyd and Ellie Conoley who loved them unconditionally and gave them the spirit and faith in the world that made both Gilbert and Gillis so special.
 
Until World War II, it is almost impossible to speak of one twin without the other.  They graduated from Taylor High School, were star athletes, were the pride of their parents lives.  Both graduated from Southwestern University in Georgetown.
 
There their lives separated.  Gilbert met Colleen Wyatt who became the center of his life from the time they met in 1939 until his death this week.  Gilbert joined the navy in 1942 and served as a chief petty officer until 1945.  On June 13, 1943, Gilbert and Colleen married in Coeur dAlene, Idaho.
 
Gilbert was a teacher and coach at Taylor High School.  In 1953, he was elected County School Superintendent for Williamson County and his young family moved to Georgetown where they lived until 1967.  As county school superintendent Gilbert worked hard to make the schools better places for the students and teachers.  Among the innovations he provided were county wide school counselors, librarians, and speech therapists.  Until then, the small county schools did not have these specialized services. 
 
In Georgetown, Gilbert was an active community leader.  He was an elder in the First Presbyterian Church and chaired civic groups including the Chamber of Commerce, the American Cancer Society, the March of Dimes, and the Rotary Club.  The War on Poverty in the 1960s provided the backdrop to Gilberts greatest service to his community.  Gilbert wrote a grant to create a Community Action Program in Georgetown.  This agency brought programs such as Head Start to the people in his community.
 
In 1965, after the family had moved to San Marcos for Colleen to teach at Southwest Texas State, Gilbert  accepted a job at the Texas Education Agency that was a fulfillment of all that he believed in.  Texas was under a federal court order that required monitoring of all school districts in the state to insure they were moving to desegregate their classrooms and extra-curricular activities.  Gilbert was director of the Office for Technical Assistance for School Desegregation.   Under his leadership for the next eleven years, multi-ethnic teams of three educational consultants covered the state working with school superintendents, school boards and communities as the schools moved toward being places where all students had equal opportunity to learn, to play sports, to lead cheers and to twirl batons.  Gilbert was the backbone and the diplomat that made this happen.  His ability to relate both to school administrators and to the minority communities made possible the transition from separate but unequal schools to schools where opportunities were available to all students.  The men and women who worked in this monumental project for change said that Gilbert was the best boss they ever worked for.  They knew he had the commissioner of educations ear and that they were supported as they traveled among the small communities in the Rio Grande Valley, in deep east Texas, in far west Texas.  Together they moved the state toward seeing students in terms of the qualities of their character, not the color of their skin.
 
In the early 1980s Gilbert retired from TEA and began the last phase of his life.  He and his family had always been avid boaters.  Weekends and vacations had been spent on house boats first on Lake Travis and later on Canyon Lake.  As retirement gave Gilbert more free time, he acquired a new enthusiasm-sailing.  With a fleet of small day sail boats and a bigger mother sailboat, Gilbert taught sailing for the PE department at SWT.  Scores of young enthusiasts gained a taste for sailing and water through these classes. 
 
Gilbert and his son, Collie, took lessons in sailing the ocean.  Then Gilbert and Colleen began their last great adventure, living on a sail boat in the Virgin Islands.  For ten seasons, they lived on the Sun Cat welcoming friends to come sail, snorkel and enjoy the good life of the Caribbean.  Many friends came again and again to enjoy the good company Gilbert and Colleen provided as well as the pleasures of sailing.
 
An avid golfer, sailor and lover of life, Gilbert saw the good in people and helped them channel it to change the world for the better. He related well to people in the counter culture while keeping his credibility as a good ol boy with the powers that be.  Gilbert never expected formality or pretense but accepted people for who they were and appreciated them for themselves. His family and friends will think of him every time the sky is blue, the wind blows and a joke that would make Gilbert smile is told.
 
Gilbert is survived by his wife, Colleen Wyatt Conoley, his children Jill Conoley Slade, Collie Wyatt Conoley, Catherine Conoley Gragg, their spouses, Tom Slade, Jane Close Conoley, Michael Gragg, his grandchildren, Brian Stevens, Colleen Conoley and her husband Greg Rhodes, Collin Conoley and his fiancé Samantha Riseman, Will Slade, Gilbert Slade, and his great grandchildren, Haley and Michael Stevens.
 
He is also survived by a multitude of friends who loved him very much.

Cemetery:
Mr. Conoley will be cremated privately.

Service:
Memorial Service is 2:00 p.m. Friday May 30, 2008 at the 1st Presbyterian Church in San Marcos, Texas.