In Memory of

I first met Tim Conover in the fall of 1969 when the neighborhood we lived in organized their first football team.  We were both 10.  Over the next several years I was fortunate to form a great friendship with Tim and of course 3 others.  We called ourselves the Fearsome Five.  We did everything together.  We played sports, went to movies, went trick or treating on Halloween, slept over at each other’s houses.  You get to know people when you do that.  For me Tim was kind, generous and had a wonderful sense of humor.  I remember one of the first times I went to his house he hold me his dad had written a book.  He pulled out a hard cover book entitled, “Everything I know about the Stock Market” by John C. Conover.  It certainly looked authentic.  He then proceeded to flip through the pages and they were all blank.  He gave me that wonderful smile, began to laugh and told me his dad knew nothing about the stock market.  Tim indeed was the jokester of our group.  He always had a way of making sure none of us took ourselves too seriously.  He was a born entertainer and was one who enjoyed captivating an audience, albeit his audience in those days was the 4 of us.

As we all grew older life separated us apart.  But every time we would get together all the feelings of childhood and the bonds we developed then came rushing back.  In the early 1990s my little sister worked for the Reston Community Center and called me to tell me Tim was performing.  My sister by the way told me recently Tim was the most handsome of our group, and he really was.  She and I enjoyed his performance and went to see him after the show.  He was kind, gracious and modest.  I was so proud to be his friend.

Years later Tim called me to be one in a group of folks to pose for pictures for some marketing materials he was having made.  Of course I jumped at the chance as an excuse to see him and get together.  I met many of his new friends, many of whom knew him professionally.  I felt lucky because I thought, I knew this guy when we were kids.  And you know he was the same guy that day as he was when we were kids.  In spite of his professional success he never changed in my eyes.  He always remained the same kind, generous, funny guy we grew up with.

When word got to me of Tim’s passing our friend Andy O’Shea wrote an email that I felt said it best.  We will always be a Fearsome Five.  Tim will live in our hearts forever.