Roger Richard Conley

Roger R. Conley, age 87, passed away Wednesday, March 1, 2023. He was born in the Panama Canal Zone on Monday, Sept 30, 1935, the son of Richard F. Conley who worked as a Canal Zone Policeman. His mother was Harriet C. Rogers who was a bookkeeper. In 1947 the Conley family moved to Saint Paul MN, and then to Atlanta. As a young man, Roger Conley worked with the airlines in Atlanta as an aircraft cargo load master, and in 1959 he was drafted into the US Army and served three years during which he spent some time in Korea as a medic. While stationed at Fort Benning, he met Carol Beth Rogers and later they were married. They moved to Panama and two children were born there: Richard F. Conley in 1966 and William R. Conley in 1968. While in Panama Roger Conley worked as a Customs and Immigration officer for the Canal Zone. He often took his sons with him to work at the customs office in the port of Balboa and even took them aboard ships. He was a member of Balboa First Baptist church and faithfully took his family to church. Roger remarried in 1980 to Olga Yolanda Johnston. He retired from the US government in 1983 and moved back to Atlanta and worked for 10 years as a Clayton County Juvenile court bailiff. Roger loved to fish and hunt. He used to cook many exotic animals hunted from the jungles of Panama. He also loved classical music and opera and used to sing in a church choir when he was a young man in Georgia. He had a great voice and often could be heard singing opera around the house to two sons who at the time couldn't appreciate his singing. In 2005, He moved to Albuquerque NM and really enjoyed the outdoors exploring the many landscapes of New Mexico. He appreciated the beauty in God's creation and loved photography and collecting rocks. Roger is survived by his wife, Olga Yolanda Conley and her son, Louis Griffith and his three children; his sons, Richard and his six children and William and his 3 children.