Glenn T. Conner, a decorated World War II navigator who became a Catholic priest, died Thursday, August 25, 2005, at Vincentian Home in McCandless, PA.
He was 86 and had been ill for the past two years with diabetes, dementia and a heart condition.
As a young first lieutenant in the Army Air Forces during World War II, Mr. Conner tasted fame and endured brutality. He flew on 27 combat missions in Europe. The last one changed his life forever, bringing him the Distinguished Flying Cross and landing him in a German prisoner-of-war camp.
After a bombing run over Yugoslavian oil fields on Dec. 11, 1944, enemy fighters shot down his B-24. Mr. Conner and the rest of the crew bailed out before their plane crashed in Austria.
German soldiers found Mr. Conner about a week later, after he tried to hide in a barn during a snowstorm. They herded him onto a boxcar and shipped him to Stalag Luft I in Barth, Germany, where thousands of Allied Forces airmen were imprisoned during the war.
Mr. Conner, who had grown up in a religious family in Homewood, combated fear and hunger by praying each day of his five months in captivity.
"He found his vocation in that POW camp," said his brother, John. "The prayers and meditation made him decide to be a priest."
After being liberated from the prison camp in May 1945, Mr. Conner enrolled at Duquesne University. He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy in June 1948. Then he entered St. Vincent Seminary.
Mr. Conner was ordained in June 1952. He served at parishes in New Brighton, the North Side and Crafton during the 15 years that followed.
He became pastor of Church of the Ascension in Ingram in 1967 and remained there until he retired in 1989.
In the twilight of his life, his wartime exploits put him back in the public eye. The tributes began when Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland inducted him into its Hall of Valor in 1998.
A serviceman who receives the Distinguished Flying Cross automatically qualifies for induction, but the fighting priest had never talked much about his service. The Hall of Valor opened in 1963, yet it took 35 years before proprietors of the military museum discovered Mr. Conner's war record.
Friends and family also learned that Mr. Conner had never actually received his medal. That was rectified when U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., presented him with his Distinguished Flying Cross in July 1999, when Mr. Conner was 80 years old.
He also received the Air Medal and a Purple Heart.
He is survived by a sister, Mary Jane Zyra, of Carnegie; and three brothers: Joseph, of Mt. Lebanon. Gilbert, of Penn Hills, and John, of Point Breeze.
Visitation will be from 3 to 7 p.m. today at Church of the Ascension, where Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. tomorrow.
(First published on August 28, 2005, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
He was 86 and had been ill for the past two years with diabetes, dementia and a heart condition.
As a young first lieutenant in the Army Air Forces during World War II, Mr. Conner tasted fame and endured brutality. He flew on 27 combat missions in Europe. The last one changed his life forever, bringing him the Distinguished Flying Cross and landing him in a German prisoner-of-war camp.
After a bombing run over Yugoslavian oil fields on Dec. 11, 1944, enemy fighters shot down his B-24. Mr. Conner and the rest of the crew bailed out before their plane crashed in Austria.
German soldiers found Mr. Conner about a week later, after he tried to hide in a barn during a snowstorm. They herded him onto a boxcar and shipped him to Stalag Luft I in Barth, Germany, where thousands of Allied Forces airmen were imprisoned during the war.
Mr. Conner, who had grown up in a religious family in Homewood, combated fear and hunger by praying each day of his five months in captivity.
"He found his vocation in that POW camp," said his brother, John. "The prayers and meditation made him decide to be a priest."
After being liberated from the prison camp in May 1945, Mr. Conner enrolled at Duquesne University. He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy in June 1948. Then he entered St. Vincent Seminary.
Mr. Conner was ordained in June 1952. He served at parishes in New Brighton, the North Side and Crafton during the 15 years that followed.
He became pastor of Church of the Ascension in Ingram in 1967 and remained there until he retired in 1989.
In the twilight of his life, his wartime exploits put him back in the public eye. The tributes began when Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland inducted him into its Hall of Valor in 1998.
A serviceman who receives the Distinguished Flying Cross automatically qualifies for induction, but the fighting priest had never talked much about his service. The Hall of Valor opened in 1963, yet it took 35 years before proprietors of the military museum discovered Mr. Conner's war record.
Friends and family also learned that Mr. Conner had never actually received his medal. That was rectified when U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., presented him with his Distinguished Flying Cross in July 1999, when Mr. Conner was 80 years old.
He also received the Air Medal and a Purple Heart.
He is survived by a sister, Mary Jane Zyra, of Carnegie; and three brothers: Joseph, of Mt. Lebanon. Gilbert, of Penn Hills, and John, of Point Breeze.
Visitation will be from 3 to 7 p.m. today at Church of the Ascension, where Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. tomorrow.
(First published on August 28, 2005, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Glenn T. Conner, a decorated World War II navigator who became a Catholic priest, died Thursday, August 25, 2005, at Vincentian Home in McCandless, PA.
He was 86 and had been ill for the past two years with diabetes, dementia and a heart condition.
As a young first lieutenant in the Army Air Forces during World War II, Mr. Conner tasted fame and endured brutality. He flew on 27 combat missions in Europe. The last one changed his life forever, bringing him the Distinguished Flying Cross and landing him in a German prisoner-of-war camp.
After a bombing run over Yugoslavian oil fields on Dec. 11, 1944, enemy fighters shot down his B-24. Mr. Conner and the rest of the crew bailed out before their plane crashed in Austria.
German soldiers found Mr. Conner about a week later, after he tried to hide in a barn during a snowstorm. They herded him onto a boxcar and shipped him to Stalag Luft I in Barth, Germany, where thousands of Allied Forces airmen were imprisoned during the war.
Mr. Conner, who had grown up in a religious family in Homewood, combated fear and hunger by praying each day of his five months in captivity.
"He found his vocation in that POW camp," said his brother, John. "The prayers and meditation made him decide to be a priest."
After being liberated from the prison camp in May 1945, Mr. Conner enrolled at Duquesne University. He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy in June 1948. Then he entered St. Vincent Seminary.
Mr. Conner was ordained in June 1952. He served at parishes in New Brighton, the North Side and Crafton during the 15 years that followed.
He became pastor of Church of the Ascension in Ingram in 1967 and remained there until he retired in 1989.
In the twilight of his life, his wartime exploits put him back in the public eye. The tributes began when Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland inducted him into its Hall of Valor in 1998.
A serviceman who receives the Distinguished Flying Cross automatically qualifies for induction, but the fighting priest had never talked much about his service. The Hall of Valor opened in 1963, yet it took 35 years before proprietors of the military museum discovered Mr. Conner's war record.
Friends and family also learned that Mr. Conner had never actually received his medal. That was rectified when U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., presented him with his Distinguished Flying Cross in July 1999, when Mr. Conner was 80 years old.
He also received the Air Medal and a Purple Heart.
He is survived by a sister, Mary Jane Zyra, of Carnegie; and three brothers: Joseph, of Mt. Lebanon. Gilbert, of Penn Hills, and John, of Point Breeze.
Visitation will be from 3 to 7 p.m. today at Church of the Ascension, where Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. tomorrow.
(First published on August 28, 2005, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
He was 86 and had been ill for the past two years with diabetes, dementia and a heart condition.
As a young first lieutenant in the Army Air Forces during World War II, Mr. Conner tasted fame and endured brutality. He flew on 27 combat missions in Europe. The last one changed his life forever, bringing him the Distinguished Flying Cross and landing him in a German prisoner-of-war camp.
After a bombing run over Yugoslavian oil fields on Dec. 11, 1944, enemy fighters shot down his B-24. Mr. Conner and the rest of the crew bailed out before their plane crashed in Austria.
German soldiers found Mr. Conner about a week later, after he tried to hide in a barn during a snowstorm. They herded him onto a boxcar and shipped him to Stalag Luft I in Barth, Germany, where thousands of Allied Forces airmen were imprisoned during the war.
Mr. Conner, who had grown up in a religious family in Homewood, combated fear and hunger by praying each day of his five months in captivity.
"He found his vocation in that POW camp," said his brother, John. "The prayers and meditation made him decide to be a priest."
After being liberated from the prison camp in May 1945, Mr. Conner enrolled at Duquesne University. He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy in June 1948. Then he entered St. Vincent Seminary.
Mr. Conner was ordained in June 1952. He served at parishes in New Brighton, the North Side and Crafton during the 15 years that followed.
He became pastor of Church of the Ascension in Ingram in 1967 and remained there until he retired in 1989.
In the twilight of his life, his wartime exploits put him back in the public eye. The tributes began when Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland inducted him into its Hall of Valor in 1998.
A serviceman who receives the Distinguished Flying Cross automatically qualifies for induction, but the fighting priest had never talked much about his service. The Hall of Valor opened in 1963, yet it took 35 years before proprietors of the military museum discovered Mr. Conner's war record.
Friends and family also learned that Mr. Conner had never actually received his medal. That was rectified when U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., presented him with his Distinguished Flying Cross in July 1999, when Mr. Conner was 80 years old.
He also received the Air Medal and a Purple Heart.
He is survived by a sister, Mary Jane Zyra, of Carnegie; and three brothers: Joseph, of Mt. Lebanon. Gilbert, of Penn Hills, and John, of Point Breeze.
Visitation will be from 3 to 7 p.m. today at Church of the Ascension, where Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. tomorrow.
(First published on August 28, 2005, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
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