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omeone once wrote that “history is biography.” That is, the story of our past can be told in the stories of the lives of great people.
When the history of 20th-century corporate real estate and economic development is written and capped, one name will stand out for his legacy: McKinley Conway.
Born Nov. 1, 1920, in Hackleburg, Ala., Conway would go on to earn two engineering degrees from Georgia Tech (which he entered at age 15), work on experimental aircraft during World War II, perform research for NASA at the Ames lab in California, and become director of the Southern Association of Science and Industry.
He would serve two terms in the Georgia State Senate and lead the effort to establish Atlanta’s mass transit system, known as MARTA, which would become a model for the country.
But it would be Conway’s “second career” that would leave an even more indelible mark on the world – his career as a publisher.
Conway published the very first magazine devoted to corporate real estate and economic development in January 1954, exactly 50 years ago this month. He called it Industrial Development. Seven years later, he would rename it Site Selection.
The rest, as they say, is history.
The success of Site Selection led to the establishment in 1961 of the International Development Research Council, a professional association of corporate real estate executives that Conway would lead for the next four decades.
He would go on to form the Industrial Development Research Foundation in 1983, the first electronic network devoted to economic development (SiteNet) in 1983, the first global forum devoted to super-projects (World Development Federation) in 1991, and the Industrial Asset Management Council in 2002.
Although Conway’s communications efforts often used a variety of media and forums, from mass media to one-on-one site visits, he never lost sight of his primary goal.
“He really did accomplish a lot of firsts, both organizationally and technologically. Without them, corporate real estate and economic development wouldn’t be what they are today,” says Laura Lyne, president of Conway Data and the daughter of McKinley Conway. “If there were a Nobel Prize for Economic Development, he’d certainly be a candidate.”
But Conway has been driven by an even higher goal, albeit a simple one: work to make the world a better and safer place. From his Conway Safe Skies Award, which he funds from his own pocket to honor heroism in combating air terrorism, to his Development Hall of Fame, Conway has always pushed others to make significant improvements to the world around them.
Just as the complete history of the 20th century has yet to be written, the final chapter of Conway’s legacy won’t be written for some time. To this day, he works tirelessly to build an eco-site for the future in Central Florida, author books and articles on futurism and economic development (he’s written more than 500 titles) and, yes, publish Site Selection.
Please take a few minutes to absorb the legacy of McKinley Conway as you read the following pages.