Boulder – For about 40 years, David Conway stoked a friendship among several kids-turned- adults from Massachusetts.
But on Sunday, the friends Conway had accumulated since seventh grade gathered to mourn his death at the home he designed and built.
“People talk about doing the right thing,” longtime friend Pat Dardenne said. “David always did the right thing.”
Conway, 53, died last week after he was swept into an avalanche on an open, in-bounds run at Arapahoe Basin. He is reportedly the first person killed by an in-bounds avalanche at a Colorado ski area in 30 years.
An avid outdoorsman – friends said he climbed 50 of Colorado’s 54 14,000-foot peaks – and expert skier, Conway always took pains to assess risk, his friends said.
“That is why this is so unbelievable,” Dardenne said of the freak avalanche. “It’s like winning the lottery in the wrong way.”
Conway’s friends said that over the four decades they knew him, he was a man of unwavering character. He owned a construction company and was eager to help with a neighbor’s plumbing in the middle of the night or to take three hours to inspect new construction at a friend’s home.
And he was the consummate father to his two daughters.
“He was the kind of guy who, when you came downstairs in the morning, he’d hand you a cup of coffee,” said Chris Visser, now of Florida.
“There is a real nobility about David … and you can see it in (his) family.”
Without Conway, said friend Loie Fecteau of Santa Fe, “our group would have scattered like the wind.” She said Sunday, however, they have vowed to stay together to honor him.
Conway’s friends heard about his death while gathered in South Hadley, Mass., at a benefit marking the sixth anniversary of Conway’s brother’s death from a heart condition.
Conway had stayed in Colorado for his younger daughter’s high school graduation.
His friends said Conway’s wife, Beth Gaffney – whom he met at age 15 – and his daughters preferred not to speak publicly. But the group took pains Sunday to describe a life well-lived.
Said Visser: “I don’t think you know people who enjoyed living more than David did.”
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 720-929-0893 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
