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Press Release

H. McKinley Conway, economic development visionary: 1920-2011

H.McKinley (Mac) Conway

Site Selection Publisher and Founder Hobart McKinley “Mac” Conway, one of the most significant figures in the history of economic development, passed away in Shiloh, Fla., on May 29, 2011. He was 90.
Conway lived a truly remarkable life. In fact, during his nine decades he created such a dazzling array of landmark moments that his life can almost sound like fiction. He excelled in multiple arenas: as a publisher, a writer, a globetrotting adventurer, a pilot and a musician.

His singular story began on Nov. 1, 1920, when he was born in the small town of Hackleburg in northwest Alabama. By the time he was 15, Conway was already a freshman at Georgia Tech, where he would earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautical engineering. (Many years later, Georgia Tech would induct him into its Engineering Hall of Fame.) Conway funded some of his schooling by leading a big band, “The Technicians.” His band was so successful that he briefly considered a career in music.

Instead, Conway accepted an offer to work for the U.S. agency that later became NASA. Stationed at Moffett Field in California, he conducted high-level aeronautical research, serving as project engineer for testing the Navy’s first jet fighter, the Ryan FR-1. He met aviation giants Orville Wright and Jimmy Doolittle while he was working for the agency.

Conway in 1949 was tapped to lead the Southern Association of Science and Industry (SASI), a fledgling 15-state development alliance. Only 29, Conway spearheaded SASI’s important role in transforming a poor, backwater South into a business hotspot.
He founded his own company, Conway Data Inc., in 1947. In a publishing milestone, he launched Site Selection magazine in 1954. Site Selection was the first magazine ever created to focus on corporate real estate and economic development. That publication today continues to dominate the industry.

In the 1960s, he served in the Georgia Senate, joined by another son of the rural South, Jimmy Carter. Sen. Conway led the effort to establish Atlanta’s mass transit system, MARTA, which became a model for the country. He also chaired the Governor’s Commission for Scientific Research and Development, and he introduced Georgia’s first “sunshine law.”

Development Pioneer
Conway’s focus also grew increasingly global during that decade. His company in 1960 won the contract to lead the Agency of International Development/Private Enterprise Promotion (AID/PEP). The U.S. government initiated AID/PEP to demonstrate capitalism’s superiority over communism in Central and South America. Conway traveled extensively to promote that goal. He often escorted delegations of Latin American leaders to the U.S. to learn from American business executives. Likewise, he frequently trekked to Latin America, organizing and leading Inter-American Development Conferences in Venezuela, Peru and Panama.

Vice President Lyndon Johnson in 1962 named Conway to a team charged with strengthening economic ties with Southeast Asia. Communists were then aggressively jockeying for a foothold in that region. The U.S. team’s Asian missions included an unforgettable trip to Burma (now Myanmar). In the midst of a formal dinner honoring the visiting Americans, the Burmese army’s commander general took the microphone. The military, he announced, had just overthrown the government; the general then “invited” the U.S. delegation to leave. The Americans flew out the next morning. Today, the military still controls Myanmar.

Conway founded several groundbreaking organizations during his lifetime. He created the International Development Research Council and the International Asset Management Council, both widely regarded as among the world’s premier real estate associations. Conway in 1991 created another unique organization, the World Development Federation (WDF). WDF linked together the principal players in the world’s billion-dollar “super projects.” The federation mounted conferences all over the globe: Honolulu; Singapore; Barcelona; Osaka, Japan; San Francisco; Paris; Madrid; Atlanta; and Jubail, Saudi Arabia.

A lifelong technophile, Conway launched the development industry’s first telecommunications network, SiteNet. Notably, he debuted SiteNet in 1983, a full decade before the Internet revolution began to remake modern life.

Aviator and Innovator
Conway was an avid world traveler, visiting 106 different countries during his lifetime, often as a pilot. He flew small private propeller planes for almost 60 years, logging more than 7,000 hours in the air.

One of his most memorable flights was 1965’s trip across South America, a journey from the Pacific to the Atlantic. With his family onboard in a two-engine prop, Conway crested the Andes Mountains before plunging down to soar over the Amazon Basin. That trip was both exciting and challenging: The family landed on rocky, primitive strips; they showered in rainstorms; they bought a blowgun and poison darts from Peruvian tribesmen. Conway made another noteworthy flight in 1980. With daughter Laura, he flew all the way from Atlanta to Europe in a single-engine plane. They could only complete that flight by navigating across the Arctic Circle. Crossing that foreboding tundra, however, facilitated the essential refueling stops.

Flying inspired Conway to create the “airport city” concept. In the late ’60s and early ’70s, he planned a number of fly-in developments around the U.S. Most notably, he started the Spruce Creek fly-in community near Daytona, the world’s most famous residential airpark. He summarized his experiences in a 1977 book, “The Airport City,” one of 48 titles he authored.
Conway in 2001 moved with his wife Becky to a large tract of land in Shiloh in north-central Florida. He lived there in a five-building compound with his daughters, Linda and Laura. Even as an octogenarian, he remained remarkably productive. Over the last five years, he wrote 10 more books. Conway maintained an energetic presence in cyberspace as well, frequently posting ideas on the Internet.

His survivors include his wife, the former Rebecca Kellam, two daughters, Linda Conway Duever and Laura (Jack) Conway Lyne, and two grandchildren, Adam Jones-Kelley of Atlanta and Piper Jones-Kelley of Whidbey Island, Wash. Other survivors include two cousins, Hudon Conway of Pearland, Texas, and John Glaser of Cape Coral, Fla.
Mac Conway will be buried in a simple graveside service on Wednesday June 1, 2011, at 10 a.m. at the Shiloh United Methodist Church Cemetery, 11020 NW Hwy. 320. A celebration of Mac Conway’s life will be held later this year in Atlanta at a yet-to-be-determined date.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to either: Shiloh United Methodist Church, 11020 NW Hwy. 320, Micanopy, FL 32667; Hospice of Marion County, 3231 SW 34th Ave., Ocala, FL 34474; or the Hackleburg Helping Hands Charity Account, P.O. Box 189, Hamilton, Ala. 35570.

Click here for a print-resolution image of H. McKinley “Mac” Conway.

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