Alice W. Conkey, music teacher

Posted 1/19/12

Alice Wright Conkey, 91, formerly of Erdenheim, a music teacher and former dean of students at Abington Friends School, died Jan. 7 at her home in Hanover, N.H., where she had been a resident for the …

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Alice W. Conkey, music teacher

Posted

Alice Wright Conkey, 91, formerly of Erdenheim, a music teacher and former dean of students at Abington Friends School, died Jan. 7 at her home in Hanover, N.H., where she had been a resident for the past 12 years.

Mrs. Conkey retired in 1982 from Abington Friends, where she had taught music and served as student dean over a period of 22 years.

Earlier she had been a music teacher at Germantown Friends School, where she met her future husband, the late Albert B. Conkey, who later taught music at Chestnut Hill Academy for more than three decades and was the organist and choir director of the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill.

While raising a family of five daughters, Mrs. Conkey taught piano, directed choirs and performed in two-piano concerts with her husband.

She was born in Vengurla, India, a daughter of the Rev. Horace Kepler and Adelaide Fairbank Wright. She graduated from the Woodstock School in Mussoorie, India, and magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Mount Holyoke College in 1941, with a double major in music and English.

After her retirement, Mrs. Conkey and her husband relocated to Brunswick, Maine, and, later, to Hanover, N.H. After her husband’s death in 2000, she continued to participate in the League of Women Voters and other organizations promoting equality and social justice.

She is survived by her daughters, Margaret Wright Conkey of Berkeley, Calif., Jane Fairbank Conkey of Falls Church, Va., Frances Conkey Trafton of Providence, R.I., Laura Elizabeth Conkey of Hanover, N.H., and Mary Adelaide Mankins of Inwood, W.Va.; a sister, Mary Adelaide Rainey of Greenville, S.C.; a brother, Theodore R.F. Wright of Charlottesville, Va.; 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at a later date. Memorial donations may be made to The Woodstock School www.woodstockschool.in or to Mount Holyoke College (www.mtholyoke.edu). – WF

 

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