LUNENBURG — Susan Mello-Conroy is taking comfort in knowing that her adventure-seeking husband died doing something he loved. Bob Conroy and his daughter Merry on top of Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire, Nov. 2017.
(COURTESY THE CONROY FAMILY) Robert ‘Bob’ Conroy perished while rock climbing at Crow Hill in Leominster State Forest on July 11. The accomplished musician, seasoned climber and hiker, and beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend was just 69. “He lived life on his terms, loved the outdoors, and thought every day was an adventure,” said his widow.
“He died the way he wanted to, doing something he absolutely loved.” Susan said her husband of nearly 45 years was one of the most physically fit people she knew. He went to the gym several times a week and once rode his bicycle all the way from Revere, Mass.
to San Francisco, Calif. – over 3,100 miles. It was his bicycle that brought him to Lunenburg from Hudson, where the couple lived previously.
Susan said he came home one day from that long bike ride and declared that they were moving to Lunenburg – that was 35 years ago. “I didn’t care to move, I liked living in Hudson,” Susan recalled. “As usual, my husband was correct.
We have a beautiful yard and a house that’s perfect for us.” They raised two children together, Merry and Kyle, and welcomed a “lovely” daughter-in-law into their family, Jovie, who is from L.A.
Susan relayed that “Massachusetts culture was a big change for her.” She and Bob met at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Susan was a voice major, and Bob was in the classical guitar program.
“We were in different departments, so we didn’t have much overlap as far as classes,” she said. “I saw him across the chorus and just I knew had to meet him.” They married in 1979 after five years together and would have celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary soon.
When asked what she loved about being married to Bob, Susan said “he was always very patient and kind, never had a bad word to say about anyone.” “We had some separate activities we enjoyed but had lots in common,” she said. “We could talk endlessly about books, politics, and really enjoyed musical concerts and history.
We read the same books so we could talk about them and had a shared language about music that others might not have understood.” They lived a very full and active life together. Bob worked at Boston University in the school of business as a database administrator and earned a master’s degree in computer information systems.
“He then took 18 philosophy courses just for the fun of it,” Susan said, adding that he retired in 2017 after 16 years at BU. She started out as a volunteer at the Lunenburg Public Library before being hired as a page, which she did for nine years. She then moved to Thayer Memorial Library in Lancaster, where she was the youth services librarian for 16 years before retiring in 2019.
She and Bob were entrenched in the local and greater community. He was a longtime member of the Friends of the Lunenburg Public Library, secretary of the Lunenburg Library Board of Trustees for seven years, and also on the Mass Cultural Council. Over the last 30 years the couple adopted three cats and fostered 13 dogs, eight of which they adopted.
“I have a way of finding animals. I’d bring home a dog or cat and tell Bob ‘We’re just fostering’ and he’d roll his eyes a think ‘sure’..
.” Susan said of her patient and loving husband. She said it was his “calm and good nature” that she was “really attracted to.
” “He had a really strong sense of who he was,” Susan said. “He wasn’t worried about what others thought of him and didn’t pass judgement on what others did. Bob never argued with anyone, even if they did not share his opinion.
His thought was it was pointless, that others were entitled to their opinions.” “He never, ever boasted even though he was talented in so many areas,” she said. “When he wrote his papers for all his philosophy classes, he would like me to read them and tell him what I thought but they were so high above me that I usually could only get some of it.
He was taking freshman classes at first, then sophomore classes and so forth and he always said the first day of class the kids would look at him and think ‘Who’s the old guy?’ The younger climbers did that at the gym too. One of his climbing partners told me the kids would stand there and watch him. They couldn’t do some of the climbs he did because of his experience.
” Bob did many difficult climbs in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Wyoming. In addition, he was a very accomplished musician in every style of guitar, from classical to surf to country. “He loved it all,” Susan said of his musical talent.
He was in several bands including the SpyTones, The Glue Factory, Shimmer, Still in the Cellar, and Rocky Knoll. Bob recorded three albums with the SpyTones and five albums of classical and his own original music. “He had great bandmates in Tom Wood and Brian Bourgault and a great producer, Elizabeth Loring of Awakening Sound, and was scheduled to be in the studio again last Monday,” Susan said.
She said that while it has “been very difficult” for her and Bob’s family and loved ones since he passed, she is “comforted with the thought that he had no regrets.” “Sometimes I was concerned about his ice climbing or spelunking but knew he had to do it,” Susan said. “He wasn’t reckless at all but loved trying new things.
He wanted to try skydiving next.” When asked what she will miss most about her partner in life, Susan relayed that Bob “was really, really funny.” “He had an odd, quirky sense of humor that always made me laugh.
We were together 50 years and I never got tired of it.”.
