Sept. 7, 1977 –

Oct. 31, 2011

Funeral services for Joel Thomas Conway Jr., 34, of Hoschton, Ga., were held on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011, at Zion Baptist Church. Rev. Chris Laskey, Rev. Russell Harbin, Coach Billy Kirk and Drew Lawson officiated. Pallbearers were Coach Kirk, Coach Cole, Coach Smith, Coach Aldridge, Coach Gilstrap, Coach Reid, Coach Lindsay and Jason Parker. Honorary pallbearers were the East and West Jackson High School football and baseball coaches.

Mr. Conway passed away on Oct. 31, due to injuries sustained in a single car accident.

He was born in Riverdale, Ga., on Sept. 7, 1977, to Joel Thomas Sr. and Mary Conway. He joined an older sister, Jill.

After graduation from Lassiter High School in Marietta, Ga., in 1996, Joel enrolled at Cumberland University where he also played football. Sidelined due to an injury, Joel continued his education at Valdosta State University graduating in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts in History. He then went on to complete a Masters of Arts in teaching at LaGrange College in 2002. He began his teaching and coaching career at Woodstock High School that fall.

In the summer of 2008, he moved with his wife to Jackson County and began teaching social studies and coaching both football and baseball at Jackson County Comprehensive High School. Earlier this year, he joined his wife at East Jackson County Comprehensive High School as a social studies teacher, football coach, and baseball coach.

Joel loved his job and couldn’t imagine a life without coaching. Some of his favorite memories have come from his involvement with high school sports. He was extremely proud of his players who went on to play at the collegiate and professional level. Joel was also an avid hunter and had looked forward to a trip with friends after football season to begin his deer-hunting season.

Joel is survived by his wife, Melissa, and son, Evan, of Hoschton; his parents, Tom and Mary Conway of Bainbridge; his mother-in-law, Kristi Musick of Imperial, Neb.; his grandmother, Vera Wells of Stone Mountain, Ga.; another grandmother, Agnes Conway of Americus, Ga.; his sister, Jill Fowler of LaGrange, Ga. He is also survived by his aunts and uncles: Betty and John Wells of Carrollton, Ga.; Betty and Roger Daniel of Carrollton; and Paul Wells and Mary Young of Decatur, Ga. Max, his chocolate lab along with many cousins and other loved ones survive him as well.

In lieu of flowers, a Memorial Fund has been established in Memory of Coach Joel Thomas Conway Jr. at Hometown Community Bank, 55 Freedom Parkway, Suite 101, Hoschton, GA, 30548.

Arrangements were in charge of Lawson Funeral Home, 35 First Street, Hoschton, GA, 30548

 

Nothing Gold Can Stay

by Robert Frost

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.