Marshall Cameron Conway

Born in Abilene, Texas, Marshall (aka Cameron aka Snort) was brought to Aragon, New Mexico by his teacher parents, T.A. Conway and Winnie (Shurtleff) Conway, when he was six. The family moved to Cliff, Amistad, Mayhill and Alamogordo, where he graduated from high school. Every summer was spent at his grandparents’ house in Reserve, NM, where he, his younger brother Tom and his next-oldest of many cousins, Johnny, enjoyed an idyllic rural lifestyle. His parents moved to Las Cruces, where he completed a degree in Biology at NMSU before enlisting in the Marine Corps. As a flight officer assigned to fly in F-4 Phantom Jets he completed 200 missions in Vietnam at the height of the conflict. While serving in the Marines, Captain Conway married Debbie Stacey and had two sons, Joseph and Brian. The family moved back to Las Cruces where Marshall earned a Master’s Degree in Wildlife Science at NMSU. The New Mexico Game and Fish Department hired him immediately and he spent nearly twenty years working outdoors in rural NM as an Endangered Species specialist and later Program Director. Before he retired he managed Department properties and discovered that the Heart Bar Wildlife Management Area in the Gila Wilderness would soon need a caretaker. He spent the next 25 years happily outside again working hard to maintain the property. In his “spare time” he enjoyed hiking, climbing, kayaking, world travel, riding his horse Chico and reading. Sadly, he had to leave the Heart Bar when diagnosed with fourth stage lung cancer. He spent his last year in Albuquerque near his beloved sons and grandchildren, and left us peacefully in home hospice in his own house, on Christmas Eve. Marshall is survived by his son Joseph, daughter-inlaw Linda and twin granddaughters Chloe and Carlie, son Brian and grandson Lukas Cameron, his wife Dr. Dawn Chambers and his dearest brother Tom. No flowers please. Donations in Marshall’s name to UNICEF or the Nature Conservancy Thanks to the UNM Cancer Center, Kindred Hospice, Riverside Funeral Home and all the friends and family who sent their support.