[Deathwatch] Frank Conroy, 'Stop-Time' author & teacher, 69

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Author, teacher Frank Conroy dead
'Stop-Time' writer directed Iowa Writers' Workshop for years
Thursday, April 7, 2005 Posted: 9:40 AM EDT (1340 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/04/07/obit.conroy.ap/index.html

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- Frank Conroy, who directed the University of
Iowa's celebrated Writers' Workshop for nearly two decades and wrote a
memoir chronicling his troubled, nomadic childhood, has died.

Conroy died Wednesday at his home in Iowa City of colon cancer, said
James Alan McPherson, acting co-director of the workshop. He was 69.

"Frank took a great program and made it an extraordinary one,"
McPherson said.

Conroy made a memorable literary debut with "Stop-Time," which
described his growing up in homes that included a Florida shack, a
snowy cabin and a tiny Manhattan apartment. The impressionistic memoir
was nominated for a National Book Award.

The author narrated his story as a classic picaresque adventure, one of
innocence, violence and discovery, as elemental as his mastery of the
yo-yo and as troubling as a gang of boys -- Conroy included --
tormenting a schoolmate, punch by punch. His other works never
surpassed it.

But Conroy gained even greater stature, and welcome stability, helping
other writers.

In 1987, he traded life on the East Coast for the slower-paced Midwest,
accepting the job of directing the Writers' Workshop, the nation's
oldest and most prestigious creative writing program.

Novelist Chris Offut, a student in Conroy's first class and now a
visiting faculty member at the workshop, credits Conroy and "Stop-Time"
for his decision to pursue writing.

"I feel as I've lost a person who was most important to me as a
writer," said Offut. "He's had an enormous impact on American
literature because of the seriousness with which he took his role here
at the workshop."

Famously demanding, to the point of reducing students to tears, he held
the post for 18 years before announcing his resignation last year. ZZ
Packer, Nathan Englander and Thisbe Nissen were among the young writers
he worked with.

He returned to teaching last year after a bout with colon cancer, but
became ill again in recent months and entered hospice care in Iowa
City.

Conroy's books also include "Time & Tide, A Walk Through Nantucket," a
collection of essays entitled "Dogs Bark, But the Caravan Rolls On,"
"Body & Soul," and "Midair." He sold his first short story when he was
a senior at Haverford College, dabbled in journalism, wrote short
stories and essays for a variety of magazines and, in the 1980s, served
as literary director at the National Endowment of the Arts.

A lover of jazz, Conroy also played piano in clubs in New York for
several years and befriended such musicians as Keith Jarrett and Wynton
Marsalis. Conroy's friend David Halberstam once called him "innately
hip, the first true counterculture person I had ever met."

After his stint with the NEA, Conroy moved to Iowa City and became the
workshop's fourth director. Founded in 1936, it was the nation's first
creative writing program and boasts alumni and past faculty such as
Kurt Vonnegut, T.C. Boyle, Raymond Carver, John Irving and Flannery
O'Connor.

Conroy was known for favoring old-fashioned narration to experimental
writing and for being a no-nonsense, curmudgeonly instructor. His
reputation for classroom criticism admittedly made at least one student
cry and another student faint.

Overseeing the workshop, the faculty and its endless stream of
talented, young writers was a job he loved, "like champagne in there,"
he said of his time in the classroom. Conroy rejoiced in his ability to
help emerging writers along and then read their published works.

"I don't know what could be more satisfying or enjoyable," Conroy,
seated behind his desk cluttered with newly published books and papers,
told The Associated Press last year.

Conroy is survived by his second wife, Maggie, three sons and three
grandchildren. No funeral is planned, but a tribute is scheduled for
April 22, featuring Irving and Boyle.