The trustees, advisors and staff of Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS) mourn the death of William Conway former General Director of the Bronx Zoo and President of the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York on Thursday 21st October 2021.
Dr. Conway was an accomplished ornithologist, a trend-setting pioneer of the modern zoo world, with a lifelong interest in wildlife conservation across the world. His decades of engagement with conservation turned the Bronx Zoo, which he joined in 1953, into a global conservation powerhouse now known as the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Conway is a legend for what he accomplished by enabling extraordinary field biologists like George Schaller and Conservation thinker John Robinson, and many others. His early initiatives shaped global conservation for several decades.
I was fortunate to have been recruited into WCS, then known as the New York Zoological Society, in 1988 by Dr. Conway on the recommendation of Dr. George Schaller. Ever since, he has been a great mentor and a warm friend, right up to this week as we served on the board of the Liz Claiborne-Art Ortenberg Foundation. I will dearly miss him at the board meeting next week.
I also have wonderful memories of staying in the tiny guest apartment at the Bronx Zoo, which is right next to the cottage where Dr. Conway and his warm and gracious wife Mrs. Christa Conway resided, and being invited to their home for dinner.
Dr. Conway supported Krithi’s education when in the University of Florida as an undergraduate student and had taken a keen interest in her science and conservation accomplishments ever since.
Krithi and I convey our heartfelt condolences to Christa Conway, and pay our final homage to the departed mentor.
– Ullas Karanth, PhD
Managing Trustee and Emeritus Director
