Conroy was originally from Chicago, and left Saint Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa, to enlist in the Marines during World War II. He would later be commissioned an officer and become a pilot with VMF-214 when the Korean War began in June 1950. The squadron became the first Marine squadron to see action during the war, providing close air support and aerial interdiction during the Battle of Pusan Perimeter, Battle of Inchon and Battle of Chosin Reservoir while flying from the. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Conroy was part of an A-4 Skyhawk squadron at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort. They were alerted and would quickly deploy to Roosevelt Roads Naval Station where they would remain for the duration of the crisis. He would also serve two tours in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He and his wife Peggy had seven children: Donald Patrick "Pat", Carol, Mike, Kathy, Jim, Tim, and Tom. Novelist Pat Conroy used his father as the inspiration for the fictitious character Marine Lt. Col. "Bull" Meecham in The Great Santini. Pat Conroy wrote another autobiographical book called My Losing Season, and as in The Great Santini, talks about how his father was very violent and abusive both towards him and his siblings. Pat's sister Carol was institutionalized with mental illness, his brother, Tom, developed schizophrenia, and Pat himself also attempted suicide in 1975. Pat has indicated violent memories of his father haunt his every waking moment, a theme the author fictionalizes in his novel The Prince of Tides. However, in later years, following his retirement from the Marines, Donald Conroy mended relationships with his children. In The Pat Conroy Cookbook, Pat Conroy provides numerous stories of his close relationship with his father during adulthood. He writes that in writing The Great Santini, his father aided him by supplying technical details about military fighter planes, and that this helped to improve their relationship. When the book was published, Donald Conroy saw the character of Bull Meecham as a truthful tribute. Thereafter, he would accompany Pat to book signings, and would sign his son's books with the signature, "Donald Conroy – The Great Santini." After retirement, Conroy moved to Atlanta, Georgia. He died from colon cancer on May 9, 1998, and is interred at Beaufort National Cemetery, South Carolina. As Bull Meecham/Meechum is killed in the crash of his fighter in both the novel and movie versions of The Great Santini, and his funeral scene was filmed at the same cemetery for the movie, Conroy joked while planning his own funeral that it would be the second time he would be buried there.
