JOHN FREDERICK CONWAY

1943 - 2025 John Frederick Conway was a sociology professor, teacher, author, activist, public intellectual, and unrepentant socialist. He passed away peacefully in Regina on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, surrounded by his children, grandchildren, brother, and life partner of over 50 years, Sally Mahood. John's upbringing in a large working-class family in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, instilled in him an enduring commitment to social justice, and a childhood bout of rheumatic fever sparked a lifelong love of reading, a fascination with the power of the written word, and a deep curiosity about the wider world. John was a strong student and high school valedictorian. This won him a scholarship in 1961 to Royal Roads Military College in Victoria, offering the prospect of both broadened horizons and free post-secondary education. The military was not a good fit for his developing social awareness and left-wing politics, however, and he quit after one year, going on to complete a bachelor and then Master's Degree in Psychology at the University of Saskatchewan. Political sociology captured his imagination in the ferment of the late 1960s and he undertook a PhD at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, while also teaching at what would become the University of Regina in the 1970s. His academic studies of prairie populism and the politics of the National Policy would eventually earn him a professorship in Regina and a stint as visiting professor of Canadian Studies in Edinburgh, Scotland. They would also form the basis for his seminal first book on the history of Western Canada in Confederation. During this time, he was deeply involved in New Left student, labour, and social movement politics, including the "Waffle" movement within the New Democratic Party. Throughout his life, John was motivated by what C. Wright Mills famously called the "sociological imagination": the imperative to understand the relationship between private troubles and public issues. Beginning with a desire to make sense of his own upbringing and difficult family dynamics, this sensibility would produce books and other writings on (among other things) the changing regional and social dynamics of Canadian Confederation, from Western Canada to Quebec, and progressive responses to the crisis of the "traditional family." John was committed to popularizing and communicating the insights of sociology to wider non-academic audiences. He was a practitioner of "public sociology" before the phrase was coined. He reached thousands of students over his long university career: going to the grocery store or out for dinner in Regina would inevitably produce encounters with former students, many of whom recounted the transformative impact of his teaching on their own thinking and lives. He tirelessly offered commentaries on the issues of the day as a print columnist, freelance broadcaster, and speaker at meetings, rallies, and protests. He served as an elected (and undefeated) public school board trustee in Regina for two decades, resisting the erosion of high-quality public education for all children regardless of their class and social circumstances. John also put his progressive principles into action in his family life: as a devoted partner to the love of his life, Sally, as a dutiful and caring father and example to his four children, and as a playful and wise grandpa to a legion of grandchildren. He applied himself equally to packing school lunches, making thermoses of hot chocolate for the kids playing on the neighbourhood rink, or presenting a factum on electoral gerrymandering to the Supreme Court. He was a valued source of unconditional support and incisive advice for anyone in his orbit - family, friends, and strangers alike. John tried above all to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, earning many admirers and not a few enemies in the process. He was proud of both and remained committed to his principles to the end. John was predeceased by his parents, Fred and Mary; and by his older siblings, Bill, Pat and Betty. He is survived by his partner, Sally; by their children, Liam (Vicki), Aidan (Melissa), Kieran (Valerie), and Meara (Nick); and by his grandchildren, Finn, Lena, Malcolm, Neve, Emile, Arlo, Llewelyn, and Eamon; as well as younger brother, Dan (Clary); and sister, Sandra (Kathy). A Celebration of Life will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 11, 2025, in the Upper Hall at the WaWa Shriners, 2065 Hamilton Street, Regina, SK. Those wishing to make donations in memory of John may do so to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives at policyalternatives.ca. Online messages of condolence may be left at www.paragonfuneralservices.com.