NANCY & HAP CONOLLY
 

Nancy and Hap Conolly have been loyal charter members of the 100 Club even though their primary residence is in Connecticut.  While visiting the Shermans in the spring of 1988, they fell in love with the skiing at Sunlight, the views and walks in Oak Meadows, and the hot springs pool.  They purchased their town house before returning to Connecticut.

Nancy was born and grew up in Nashua NH.  She began skiing at a very early age and was on the Syracuse Women’s Ski Team at the same time Tom Sherman was on the Men’s Team.  Nancy met Ollie the day they both entered Syracuse in 1943, and they have been friends ever since.  Nancy graduated with her BFA degree in 1947.

Hap was born and raised in Brighton NY, a suburb of Rochester.  He entered The Citadel in Charleston SC in 1942 and enlisted in the Army Reserve late in his first semester.  He was soon called to active duty and spent thirty-three months in the Army at various posts.  The last thirteen months of his service were spent in New Guinea and the Philippines.  He enrolled at Syracuse in 1946 under the GI Bill and met Tom Sherman. They become fraternity brothers and graduated in 1948.  Hap did not meet Nancy until a few days before her graduation.  Prior to that meeting he thought skiers were idiots, but after dating Nancy he learned to ski after a fashion.  After graduation he went to Harvard Business School where he obtained his MBA, followed by their marriage in 1950.

Then followed the busy years, first working at Eastman Kodak in Rochester where their only daughter was born in 1951.  This was followed by a career change to Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corporation.  His first assignment was in Watervliet NY, where Allegheny had a large bar production facility.  Three of their sons were born in the Albany area.  In 1960 Hap joined a new corporate planning function in Pittsburgh, where a fourth son was born.  In 1961 the company consolidated two bar plants under one division management in Dunkirk NY, with Hap as Division Controller.

In 1965 Hap decided to make another career change and joined AMAX, Inc. in New York City.  The family moved to Connecticut in 1966 and remained there until 1977, when Hap was invited to assume the presidency of a copper subsidiary in Tucson AZ.  He became V.P. of Finance and Control for Climax Molybdenum in Golden CO in 1982 and they relocated to Evergreen.  In December 1983 he joined the European headquarters of AMAX in Paris, as Senior V.P. for Finance and Administration, with the responsibility for consolidating the several formerly independent European operations under one administration.  He completed the assignment in twenty-six months and opted to retire in 1986.

Wherever they lived, Nancy and Hal found adventure.  For twenty-two years they had a ski house at Okemo Mountain in Ludlow VT.  Their youngest son, Jay, skied with the family starting at two and a half.  His incessant cries of “monaski” forced a decision to put his sneakered feet inside a pair of outgrown ski boots.  It worked!  Nancy also enjoyed tennis, golf, volunteer work, and art.  She studied watercolor under Ed Whitney and graduated from the New York School of Interior Design. 

Hap was an instructor in the Sunlight Ski School for six years.  Now Nancy and he ski for relaxation.  His serious hobby is playing duplicate bridge twice a week, and he serves as a volunteer driver for the American Cancer Society.  Nancy volunteers at the Mystic Art Center in Mystic CT, where she is an Artist Member; and she is a serious member of the Nine Holer Golf Group.  She continues to enjoy periodic trips to the Met and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  She has studied drawing from many artists and has also enjoyed the French Circle at CMC.  In August of every year she and daughter Nina attend a weeklong summer camp for artists in Maine.

They built their retirement home in Noank CT, on Fishers Island Sound, halfway between Boston and New York.    They think they have the best of worlds, the mountains for four months a year and the coast for boating and seeing family (all of whom live nearby) the rest of the year.

by Mimi Baldwin