Category Archives: John O’Connor Conway

John O’C. Conway is one of Oswego’s “favorite sons”. He was born on July 26, 1911 in Troy, New York. His parents were Daniel H. Conway and Ellen O’Connor Conway. She was the youngest of 9 children in a family from Oswego and was homesick. While John was an infant, the Conway’s moved back to Oswego.

John’s father was a businessman. His enterprises included a knitting factory that was located on Bridge Street. He also served as Mayor of Oswego in the 1930’s, as a Republican. Conway Terrace, a housing development on the City’s east side, was named after him. Continue reading →

The Oxford Dictionary defines the word “gentleman” this way “A polite, gracious, or considerate man with high standards of propriety or correct behavior”. It also defines politics as “the strife of interests, masquerading as a contest of principle, the study of who gets what, why, when, where, and how. No wonder the computer couldn’t connect the two concepts. But where the computer failed, John O’Connor Conway succeeded, and he was surely one in a million. John was a very rare breed of human being indeed who could combine politics with being a gentleman. In fact, he was the very embodiment, the personification, of those two concepts and he combined them with dignity, quiet compassion, humor, tact and resourcefulness in a way that some say only a true Irish politician can do. Continue reading →