Harold Moody Conner
November 16, 1936 – February 15, 2022
Harold Moody Conner of Andrews, Texas passed away February 15, 2022 from complications related to pneumonia. Moody passed quietly in his sleep, surrounded by family, in the Permian Regional Medical Center in Andrews. He was 85 years of age.
Moody was preceded in death by his wife of 52 years, Georgan Conner, who passed in 2009, and his brother, Coy Conner. Moody is survived by a daughter, Dr. Connie Crossnoe of Lubbock, Texas, and a son, Jeff Conner, Esq. of Round Rock, Texas, as well as his brother, Elgin Conner, Esq. and sister, Anne Dunn, and three grandchildren, Rachel, Conner, and Rebecca.
Moody was born in Hollis, Oklahoma in 1936, the oldest child of Elgin and Marguerite Conner. He graduated from high school in Plainview, Texas, and lettered four years in football (1955-1958) for the Abilene Christian University Wildcats, playing offensive line and deep snapper. Moody was a member of the Frater Sodalis organization while at ACU. Moody began his public education career in Abilene and moved to Andrews to accept a middle school teaching/ coaching position in 1964. Moody transferred to Andrews High School in 1965, coaching football and basketball and his true love, track and field. Unfortunately, part of the unwritten code of high school coaches is that frequent geographic moves are required to move up the coaching ladder. Assistant coaches routinely follow their head coach whenever he is fired for not winning enough or accepts a better job in a new district for winning a lot.
Problem was, Moody loved Andrews – the town, the people, the Church of Christ, the school district – and refused to put his family through the trauma of repeated moves simply to advance his own career. Instead, after several low-level administration jobs, Moody earned his principal certification, and was hired as the principal of Devonian Elementary School in 1976, where he remained until his retirement in 1999. Generations of students passed through Devonian under Moody’s leadership, and they can all recount tales of master teachers who loved them and prepared them for higher education. Devonianites could tell tales of the dreaded “pink bench” where students waited until being called into the principal’s office for discipline issues. Each student memorized and internalized the school motto: “A Devonian student needs no introduction.” In 1987, Moody was elected President of the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association (TEPSA), an organization that fights for the grade school children who attend public schools in Texas. Moody was a cowboy poet who wrote and recited tales of the West. He was a frequent contributor to the National Cowboy Symposium & Celebration (NCSC) held in Lubbock, Texas every year. Moody was a longtime member of the Andrews Church of Christ, where, at various points in time, he served as Bible school teacher, committee chairman, deacon, and elder. They never did ask him to lead singing. With Georgan at his side, Moody was a frequent traveler, visiting 43 of the lower 48 states as well as Alaska and Hawaii.
In his later years, instead of becoming bitter, resentful, cranky, and … uhm … moody, he practiced a refreshing degree of positivity and grati tude. Moody spent time with his grandchildren, read, watched reruns of M*A*S*H, mourned his wife, kept a long, handwritten prayer list, was a constant presence at church, and was frequently seen at the Andrews Senior Center.
Most obituaries, out of respect for the deceased, tend to contain at least a small degree of hyperbolae. We make people seem better or more interesting than they really were in life to try to remember them in the best possible light.
None of that is necessary with Moody. He led a full, rich, fascinating life. He crossed paths with a staggering number of people from all walks of life, almost all of whom remember him fondly. He did a tremendous amount of good over the course of his journey. He said “Thank you” frequently, even at the very end, when he had tubes coming out of multiple orifices and struggled for each breath. He loved exactly one woman in his life, and he loved her until his dying breath. He tried hard to practice his faith, not by scolding people with Bible verses, but by treating them with respect and dignity.
It was a life well-lived.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Ken Ivey Scholarship Foundation through the Andrews Church of Christ, 201 NW 2nd Street, Andrews, Texas 79714.
