Obituary: Andrew J Conway (QM 1966-1973)

October 16, 2022 marked the end of life for Andrew John Conway, age 67 (QM 1966-1973)

Following his days at QM, Andrew read Maths at St John’s Cambridge. Andrew was fond of saying if he hadn’t been able to learn about programming computers, he would have spent a miserable career in accounting. Natural inquisitiveness and avid reading kept Andrew on top of his professional game and he enjoyed a flourishing software engineering career in the hub of Silicon Valley.

From mainframes (Birmingham, Chicago, The Bay Area) he soon saw the road ahead would be paved with desktops and PCs. Andrew happily defined himself as a digital nomad which afforded the opportunity to work from anywhere with an Internet connection. His family was based in San Francisco, but branched out to life in The Bahamas and later, summers were spent on a narrowboat, surveying the canal system throughout the UK at a stately 3 MPH. Nothing made Andrew happier than ‘messing around in boats”, seen by his American wife Paula as a peculiarly English concept.

His interests were many and varied. A love of acting and appreciation of theatre stemmed from influence of QM instructor, Geoff Paxton  A myriad of interests included travel, snorkeling, book collecting, birding, photography, sailing, camping as well as juggling, circus and street performance, knot tying and whip cracking. Andrew wrote “The Bullwhip Book” and took great pride in bestowing a copy to his college when he attended the 500th anniversary in 2011.

He is survived by his wife Paula, sons Daniel (Olivia) and Ian (Louise) Conway.