Jan Conroy was all about the university’s look and feel.

The look, for him, was in the graphic art he created for close to 40 years, first as a student and then as an employee. He designed everything from logos and posters and fliers and brochures, to UC Davis Magazine and the UC Davis Medal.

The feel, for him, was in the warm and welcoming place he found when he moved here in the early 1970s.

Conroy, who retired in July 2012, died the night of June 15 in a solo car crash along the Sacramento River in southern Sacramento County. He was alone, driving on Highway 160 when, according to the California Highway Patrol, his car drifted off the levee road and overturned down the embankment on the side away from the river.

He was en route home to Carmichael from Concord, where he had celebrated Father’s Day, as he did every year, at his daughter’s home. He was 67.

Conroy received a bachelor’s degree in design in 1977, then worked at Repro Graphics for 10 years before moving to central communications, where he would stay until his retirement 25 years later as the executive director.

Laurie Lewis moved from Repro Graphics to communications shortly after Conroy, and together they created the foundation for the university’s visual identity, including the ‘UC DAVIS’ word mark. “I cannot think of another person I would have wanted to share that ride with,” Lewis said. “Jan took the time, saw to the details and shared his wisdom with all of us."

Conroy was born in San Francisco, and raised there and in Alta, in the Placer County foothills, where he moved with his grandparents the summer before his senior year in high school.

“I remember him as tall and artsy,” said Gayle Dax-Conroy, who was two years behind Conroy at Colfax High and would become his wife years later. “He was always drawing, and he was the only kid in high school taking French 4.”

He graduated from high school in 1965, joined the Navy (serving for four years as a Spanish linguist, listening to military broadcasts from Cuba) and arrived in Davis in the spring of 1970 when he came to visit two students who were friends of his from Placer County. Three years later Conroy would be a UC Davis student, too.

He was a Renaissance man: He read books, magazines and newspapers ("Words, in a row, if they’re there, I’ll read ’em,” he said in a 2012 interview with KDRT radio’s Bill Buchanan on his “Davisville” show). He liked movies and music. He played the guitar and sang. He gardened. He raised koi.

And he smiled. His wife related how Jan's words of advice to his daughter, and others when they asked, “No matter how horrible our life has been, each of us still has a choice: be upset, angry or happy. I choose to be happy.”

(If happy was a habit, so was going to Ali Baba every Wednesday for lunch, ordering the Bagali Polo every time.)

In the last UC Davis Magazine before he retired, he reflected positively on how the university had grown over 40 years yet stayed true to its roots. “This is not your father’s and mother’s university any more,” he wrote in his goodbye column in Vol. 29, No. 4. “And yet it still is. We still value the teaching, research and public service missions of the university. And we value and welcome each generation of students who come here to learn, to stretch and grow, and ultimately to contribute in their turn.”

He is survived by his wife, Gayle Dax-Conroy of Carmichael; daughter, Ann Conroy Lockyer (Joseph) of Concord; stepchildren Steve Cammack (Valorie) of Clovis, Noelle Cammack of Davis, Tom Dax (Chandra) of Orangevale, Juliann Dax of Antelope and Jeffrey Dax (Coral) of Carmichael; grandchildren, Joseph, Cooper, Dovlynn, Damien, Taylor, Anthony, Cody Joe, Jessica, Chrissy, Maddi Mae, Matt, Makensie and Cameron; and great-grandchildren, Andre and Kaison; and brother Mark Conroy (Sheila) of Folsom, and nieces Tonisha, Chelsea and Sophie Conroy.

A celebration of life will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday (June 29) at Putah Creek Lodge.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Jan Conroy Scholarship Fund. Checks should be made payable to the UC Davis Foundation, with “for the Jan Conroy Scholarship” on the memo line, and mailed to the UC Davis Foundation, 1460 Drew Ave., Suite 100, Davis 95618.

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