Assistant to chancellors kept ‘good relationships’
John J. Conard Sr., former director of University Relations and assistant to three former KU chancellors, died Friday at age 86.
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
Former Chancellor Archie R. Dykes, who was chancellor from 1973 until 1980, said that Conard, who was his assistant for much of his time there, helped the University maintain “very good relationships across the state.”
“People thought well of him,” Dykes said. “When he would introduce me, a young guy from Tennessee, people would accept me, because John Conard was doing the introduction.”
Conard earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s in political science at the University of Kansas. He then went to the University of Paris with a Rotary Club scholarship and earned his doctorate in international law.
Dykes said Conard lived by the Rotary Club’s motto: service to others. “His ethics were absolutely superb,” Dykes said. “He had a brilliant mind.”
After leaving the University, Conard was speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives in 1967 and ran for lieutenant governor in 1968. He was then the executive director of the Kansas Board of Regents from 1976 until he retired in 1982.
Chancellor Robert Hemenway said in a press release, “Dr. Conard had a long and distinguished relationship with the University of Kansas, dating back to his undergraduate days as a Summerfield Scholar.”
Graveside services with military honors for Conard are today at 10:30 a.m. in Fairview Cemetary in Greensburg. Funeral services were held yesterday at Plymouth Congregational Church in Lawrence.
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