1908 – 1957 (July 8)

George William Conley, son of George Conley and Elizabeth Bastian, was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on February 18, 1908. Following his early education, he attended Augustinian Academy on Staten Island, New York, and entered the novitiate on August 15, 1926 at New Hamburg, New York. He made simple profession of vows on August 16, 1927 and solemn profession on the same day in 1930 at Villanova. He received his B.A. degree from Villanova College in 1931. Following theological studies, he was ordained to the priesthood by John McNamara, Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, on June 12, 1934. He remained in Washington to do graduate work at The Catholic University of America.

From 1935 until 1957, Father Conley served as an assistant in the parish of Our Mother of Good Counsel, in Los Angeles, California. In January 1957, he was temporarily assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Ojai, Calif., where he died on July 8, 1957 of a heart attack, at the age of 49. Solemn Requiem Mass was offered on July 11th with Father Charles McCarron, O.S.A. as celebrant and Father John F. Burns, O.S.A. as homilist. His body was brought back east where he was buried in the Community plot of Saint Mary's Cemetery in Lawrence, Mass.

Father Conley was a gentle, humble and scholarly man of delicate sensibilities, gifted in  art, music and poetry, ever open to friendship.