Philip A. Conard and family papers

Philip Arthur Conard(1875-1958) was born on a farm near Monticello, Illinois, the second of ten children. He graduated from the University of Illinois, where he had been active in the student YMCA, and took on the position of secretary there after graduating. In 1906 The International Committee of YMCAs of the USA and Canada offered him the opportunity to go to South America to investigate the possibility opening a new YMCA. At that time there were two Ys in South America, in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. Philip was charged with determining in where the new Y should be launched. He spent two years in Buenos Aires on that assignment, and also assisted the local YMCA on its financial campaign and learned Spanish. In 1909 he went to Montevideo, Uruguay to organize the establishment of a YMCA there. After successfully launching the Montevideo Association, Philip went on to serve as Continental Secretary for the South American Federation of YMCAs. He also directed the Instituto Technico, the South American YMCA training school, from 1922 to 1927 and founded the International YMCA Camp at Piriápolis. He retired in 1940, but continued to reside in Uruguay with his family, and was recalled for emergency service more than once after that. During World War II, he served for several years as field representative of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Portugal, Spain, and North Africa.

Philip Conard married Florence Mary Smith, whom he had met while both were students at the University of Illinois, in 1915. The couple had three daughters, Florence, Lois, and Alice Fay. The family rented a large house in Montevideo and all three girls attended Crandon Institute, a private bilingual girls' school with a strong religious focus and social service commitment. After Florence Mary died in 1945, Philip married Jennie Reid ("A'Jen"), a longtime friend of the couple who had moved to Montevideo in 1914 to take the position as director of Crandon. Philip died in Montevideo at age 82. Jennie passed away in 1964 in New Jersey, of complications from Parkinson's Disease.

Florence Mary Smith Conard(1877-1945), was born in Elbridge, New York, daughter of Elizabeth Hutchinson Smith and George R. Smith, a Presbyterian minister. Highly educated, Florence studied Latin at the University of Illinois, where she first met Philip Conard. For fifteen years she had a career in teaching, both at the high school level and as a member of the faculty at Hunter College in New York City. She believed strongly in opportunities for women and participated in the Suffrage movement. She completed her academic career at Columbia University, earning her Ph.D before embarking a ship to Brazil where she married Conard at age 38. The marriage was opposed by her parents, who had expected her to remain a spinster teacher and take care of her sister Bertha, who was intellectually disabled following a childhood illness.

Florence's scholarly studies included Latin, English, writing, and researching early champions of women's rights. While in South America, she translated many folk stories from Spanish to English and study materials from English to Spanish. She also taught English at Crandon Institute and was active in early welfare projects such as the "Semano del Nino" that helped educate new mothers on questions of nutrition and child care. In her 50s, she took up watercolor painting, and her keen interest in botany led her to paint many definitive pictures of indigenous wildflowers which were published in botanical journals and YMCA materials. She passed away in 1945 of cancer.

Florence Elizabeth Conard Wainwright (1916-1951) was the oldest child of Philip and Florence Mary Conard. After graduating from Crandon Institute in Montevideo, she attended Oberlin College in Ohio and then traveled to Europe, where she intended to study in Madrid, Spain with a scholarship. Just a day after her ship departed from New York, however, the Spanish Civil War broke out. After spending the summer with family friends in France waiting (unsuccessfully) to enter Spain, she returned to the United States to earn a masters degree at Wellesley College. She spent a year teaching English at Ogontz School, near Philadelphia and was then was offered a position by the AFSC doing relief work with children in Murcia, Spain and later in Madrid. She met Englishman George W. Wainwright in Madrid, where he was working for Shell Oil. The couple married and settled in Madrid. Florence died suddenly in 1951 from complications following a minor surgical procedure.

Lois Orilla Conard Gassler(1918-2012) was born in Montevideo and attended Crandon Institute with her sisters. She graduated from Oberlin College and received her M.S. in social work from Columbia University. She served as a child welfare worker for the Philadelphia Children's Aid Society prior to her marriage to Dr. Robert K. Gassler in 1944. Following her husband's active duty in the U.S. Navy and his specialty training in orthopedics, the Gasslers moved to Texarkana before settling in Waco in 1953. She was active in and held leadership roles in the Pan American Round Table, the McLennan County Medical Auxiliary, Planned Parenthood, the YMCA, and St. Alban’s Episcopal Church.

Alice Fay Conard Grannon ("Beba") (1920-1995) was born in Rochester, New York while the family was on furlough to the United States. After attending junior college in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she went on to complete her undergraduate education at the University of Iowa. She married Charles Grannon in 1941.

Biographical information was taken from the collection.