US Navy Beach Jumpers Assoc.

William J. Conner, Jr., the son of William J. Conner, Sr. and Margaret J. (Tehan) Conner, was born in New York City on February 17, 1923. He was reared in Dumont, NJ, graduated from Dumont High School in 1940, and was employed by Bell Telephone Laboratories until he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1942. He was a member of the First Naval Beach Jumpers Unit and was in combat at the invasions of Sicily and Salerno. He attained the rating of First Class Electronic Technician's Mate and was appointed a Midshipman in the Navy's Officer Training Program. Subsequent to World War II, he was a Lieutenant (j.g.) United States Naval Reserve serving in Naval Intelligence until 1972. In 1947 he received the degree of B.S. in Physics from Villanova College - the first awarded by Villanova - and in 1955 an MBA degree from the Drexel Institute of Technology. His thesis foretold the widespread adoption of computers in business process control. He married Margaret M. Feiler in 1947 and they had one son, William J. Conner, III, born in Washington, D.C. in 1963. Upon graduating from Villanova he was employed in the Research and Development Department of Atlantic Refining Company as a physicist, Minneapolis Honeywell as an engineer and an engineering section manager, and the General Electric Missile and Space Division where he participated in the Atlas/Thor reentry vehicle development as a technical and business manager, including manager of the Advanced R&D Program. After three years as Director of Planning/ Systems Engineering of Litton Industries' Radcom Division in the Washington, D.C. area, in 1964 he rejoined GE as Manager of Marketing for its Military Communications Department in Oklahoma City and was subsequently appointed Manager of Advanced Systems Planning for the Electronic Systems Division in Syracuse, NY. The Conner family moved back to Oklahoma City in 1972 when he joined Benham Blair & Affiliates where he became a Senior Vice President and Director of the parent Benham Group and President of the Benham/SNC Company jointly-owned with SNC Group of Montréal, PQ, Canada. In 1982, he established an independent consulting practice in Oklahoma City under the name W. J. Conner Associates. He provided business planning and crisis management to numerous clients both locally and in the East, as well as to the Courts, until his death on September 27, 2006. Among his charitable services was that of President, and a Director, of The Catholic Foundation of Oklahoma for over 18 years and two terms as a Director of the Arthritis Foundation. He is survived by his wife, Margaret, his son, William J. Conner, III of Boston, MA, brothers-in-law John Feiler (Frances) of Philadelphia, PA, Robert Feiler (Jean) of Columbus, OH, sister-in-law Rita Conner of Dumont, NJ and 18 nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to either the William J. Conner, Jr. Scholarship Fund at Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, PA 19085 or the William J. Conner, Jr. Endowment at the Catholic Foundation of Oklahoma, 7501 N.W. Expressway, Oklahoma City, OK 73123. A Mass of Christian Burial will be at 1:00 P.M., Saturday, September 30, 2006 at Christ the King Church, 8005 Dorset Drive. Entombment will follow at Resurrection Memorial Cemetery. SMITH & KERNKE 14624 N. MAY AVE

ET1/c - LTjg William J. Conner Jr. BJU-1 1943-46 d. 9-27-2006 “Fair winds and following seas”

U.S. Navy Beach Jumpers Association (727) 4-USNBJA

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