John Francis Coneys

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John Francis Coneys (“Jack”) of Bronxville, NY, and formerly of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, PA, passed away peacefully on November 12, 2017, after a lengthy illness, during which he had lived at the Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini Nursing Home in Dobbs Ferry, NY.

Mr. Coneys was 92 years old.  During his 38 years (1952-1990) with Chase Bag Company, the former national packaging manufacturer (currently Coveris Holdings SA, www.coveris.com), Mr. Coneys held several ascending positions including office manager and later general manager of the company’s Philadelphia manufacturing facility, assistant to the Vice President-Director of Sales, and finally product manager for textile, woven paper and woven polypropylene bags, the later positions in the company’s former Greenwich, CT headquarters.

In 1947, Mr. Coneys graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce from Drexel Institute of Technology (currently Drexel University, http://drexel.edu/), Philadelphia, PA.  (He participated in the accelerated program for military veterans.)  During college, Mr. Coneys was a center for the Drexel Dragons varsity football team and a proud member of the Theta Chi Fraternity (Beta Theta Chapter; https://www.thetachi.org/beta-theta).

Mr. Coneys’s honorable service in the U.S. Army as a “stateside commando” during World War II was cut short by application of the Sullivan Act due to the death while in U.S. Army service of his elder brother, Walter James Coneys, at the age of 19. Mr. Coneys was a 1943 graduate of the Upper Darby High School (https://www.upperdarbysd.org/udhs), Drexel Hill, PA.  Since 1974, Mr. Coneys was a member of the Coveleigh Club in Rye, NY, where he excelled at tennis, lawn bowling and making many good friends.  Mr. Coneys was a longstanding member of the American Legion, Merion Post 545, Merion War Tribute House, Merion Station, PA. (Previously, he had been a member of the John Dunbar Post 1125, Yonkers, NY, and the former John Barry Post, Philadelphia, PA)

Mr. Coneys was the founding Treasurer and later Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Exceptional Family, Inc., a not-for-profit charitable corporation that served the needs and aspirations of mentally retarded adults living in private institutions in New York State.  Born and raised in the Episcopal Church (Church of the Epiphany Sherwood, West  Philadelphia, https://philadelphiastudies.org/category/church-of-the-epiphany-sherwood/), Mr. Coneys converted to Catholicism while his family members were parishioners of the Church of the Annunciation (http://annunciation-fatima.com/) in Crestwood (Yonkers), NY from 1964-2015.

Mr. Coneys himself was an active parishioner, serving as an usher at the 5:00 PM Sunday Mass for more than twenty years.  Mr. Coneys was born in Drexel Hill, PA to the late Walter Joseph Coneys and the late Florence Randolph Coneys on November 16, 1924.  From 1958-1964, Mr. Coneys and his family lived up on Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia, where they resided on West Willow Grove Avenue.  His family members were parishioners of the Our Mother of Consolation Church (http://www.omcparish.com/), where he sent two of his three children to school.

At considerable expense for the time in 1960, Mr. Coneys enrolled his mentally retarded eldest son, Walter Jude Coneys, in the opening class of the Don Guanella School, Springfield, PA (http://dgdpcommunities.org/history-of-don-guanella-village/).

Jack is survived by his loving wife of 66 years, Ann Frierson Coneys of Bronxville, NY, and his devoted sons, Walter of Yorktown Heights, NY, and Michael of Bronxville, NY, all formerly of Chestnut Hill.  Mr. Coneys was predeceased in 2016 by the daughter he greatly cherished, Karen.

After a viewing at Fred H. McGrath & Son, Inc., 20 Cedar Street, Bronxville, NY, on November 16, 2017 from 2-4 PM and 7-9 PM, and a Solemn Requiem Mass on November 17, 2017 at 10:45 AM, at the Church of St. Joseph, Bronxville, NY, Mr. Coneys will be buried at Fernwood Cemetery, Lansdowne, PA.  If you have any reminiscences of Jack that you wish to share, please send them to his son, Michael, at michaelconeys@msn.com.

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