Jack Conway, who began his sales career selling ads at the Boston Record American, died on Monday from cancer.
The 88-year-old real estate mogul opened his first home sales office in Hingham, Mass., 56 years ago and built a company that included 40 offices at one of the largest independent real estate companies in Massachusetts.
“My father touched so many lives in a positive way,” said Conway’s daughter Carol Bulman, CEO of Jack Conway & Co., in a statement. “He will be missed by our family, our entire company and all those he helped through his lifetime of giving back to the community.”
Conway, who was known to shun voice mail and or email, preferred face-to-face or telephone conversations. He penned a company newsletter up to three times a week, including vignettes about his visits to his offices in what he called “Conway Country.” When a social-media trainer pointed out that his writings could be considered a blog, he laughed about what he termed his traditional approach to doing business. “Personally, I don’t know the difference between a Blackberry and a blueberry,” he said. “But my agents do.”
Patrick J. Purcell, publisher of the Boston Herald and a longtime Conway friend, said he will miss his pal. “Jack Conway was a terrific man – smart, generous to a fault and a lot of fun,” said Purcell in a statement. “Jack followed his father’s footsteps as a sportswriter at the old Record American when he was a young man, covering the boxing beat. Although he left the paper nearly 60 years ago, Jack kept a keen eye on what we were doing at the Herald and if he thought we got it wrong, I would hear from him first thing in the morning and we’d hash it all out.”
Conway was the Massachusetts Association of Realtors president in 1970 and 1971 and earned the group’s Realtor of the Year Award in 1971. He was also the former president of RELO, the International Relocation Network. In 2006, Conway was honored by the National Association of Realtors and the Cape Cod and Islands Board of Realtors with the “Realtor Emeritus” award.
He is survived by his wife, Patricia (Carroll) Conway of Scituate, a son, Jack Conway Jr. of Florida, and two daughters, Barbara Conway and Carol Bulman, both of Scituate. He was the grandfather of six and great-grandfather of four.
Source: Boston Business Journal
