Wayne Conley’s ‘interesting’ approach to life impacted region
Ron Jones and Wayne Conley were playing golf years ago when Conley hit the ball up into a pine tree.
While some people would take the ball down and move on, Conley, owner of Conley Resort, opted to hit the ball out of the tree. Jones remembers this golf outing among many others over the years because Conley still managed to bogey the hole.
“The ball was practically out of play, but he still hit it,” Jones said. “The professionals don’t lose balls, and he said that just because we don't have a gallery doesn't mean we shouldn't take a lost ball.”
Conley died Feb. 26 in his Butler home at the age of 69. He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Barbara Anderson Conley, as well as his children, Sean, Erin and Kyle; siblings Jeanne McLaughlin, Robert Conley and James Conley; and grandchildren Ava, Tiger Lily and Maeve.
In addition to being a business owner, Conley was a past president of the Butler AM Rotary Club and helped to create and develop the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau in his 40 years in the Butler business sector.
Jones worked for Nationwide Insurance in Butler when he met Conley. He said the company had training sessions at Conley Resort on Route 8 in Penn Township, which is where he met and got to know Conley.
Jones would help initiate Conley into the Butler AM Rotary Club in the mid-2000s, where his generosity and work ethic shined.
“If something needed to be done, he pitched in and got it done,” Jones said. “He was generous to a fault, and he loved children. He was a real softy for the kids.”
Conley was an integral member of the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau, which he became involved with at the beginning of its formation in 1999.
Bureau president Jack Cohen said Conley helped set up the goals of the organization, and subsequently developed tourism for Butler County in general.
“(He was) involved in setting up the bureau, building the bylaws, all the things you need to create a foundation and a tourism bureau,” Cohen said. “He had a lot of know-how.”
Cohen also said Conley’s hardworking nature was evident in how he worked with county organizations for the purpose of promoting tourism. Because he was a business owner, Conley had a motivation to build up Butler County as a destination. Cohen said his golf knowledge was one way he promoted the county.
“Wayne was very creative around golf,” Cohen said. “We did things at his course, we had people go there for different events.” Conley also was a dedicated member of the Western Division Pittsburgh Golf Organization
Cohen said most of all he will remember Conley as more than just a bureau partner, but as a friend.
“The two of us became great friends from day one, and he was a really good, hardworking man, and I am blessed to be able to have known him and his family,” he said. “He asked me to come over to his house last week, and we talked for a while. He was terribly sick, but he still had a smile on his face.”
Butler AM Rotary past president Jim Thompson said he remembers Conley being heavily involved with the flower planting initiatives on Hansen Avenue.
“He loved planting flowers on Hansen Avenue every year,” Thompson said. “He would bring his truck from the golf course and collect the garbage.”
Peggy Weckerly, treasurer of the Butler AM Rotary club, said Conley was president when she joined in 2007, and he made her first time attending a meeting of the group feel comfortable.
“Wayne made me feel so welcome,” Weckerly said. “He had an interesting sense of humor, which was part of it, but he always held a special place in my heart. You run into some people who just kind of stay with you.”
Weckerly and Thompson described Conley and Jones as longtime best friends, and Thompson said the two were always close together at Rotary events.
Jones said he was heartbroken at the loss of Conley, but he will always remember the times they played golf together, calling him the worse golf cart driver he knew. He also recalls the hours they spent working on Rotary projects and the summer days when the two sat on Conley’s deck and ate hot dogs.
Jones said the two words that best describe Conley are “courageous” and “graceful.”
“He in a lot of ways was like a brother to me,” Jones said. “I am going to miss him forever because we did a lot together.”
