Few people have logged as many miles on the job as D. Wayne Conner ’52/56.
A retired U.S. Foreign Service diplomat, Conner began his globetrotting career in 1957 and retired in 1983 after serving in the Philippines, Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Kenya, South Africa, Vietnam, Nigeria and India. Among the posts he held were cultural affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy in Manila, U.S. Information Agency public affairs officer in Johannesburg, deputy chief of psychological warfare operations in Da Nang and U.S. International Communications Agency cultural attaché in Madras.
Before entering the Foreign Service, Conner graduated from the University of Wichita with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education and sociology. From 1952-57, he taught and served as principal of schools in Cheney, Kan.
A Pearl Harbor survivor, he is a veteran of the U.S. Navy, serving in the Pacific throughout World War II. He continued his service to country in air-sea rescue in the Coast Guard and then returned to his hometown of Cheney to work in the family business and marry Wilda Young.
The couple had five sons and a daughter. In an undated newspaper clipping, Conner is asked about his children, who would be staying in Kansas with his wife and her family while he worked in Da Nang. This is part of his response: “I think my children have gained at least that: the ability to like a person as an individual and not for his position.”
Wayne Conner died Dec. 17, 2008, in Wichita.
