As the Washington Post reported, Richard Timothy Conroy was born December 20, 1927, in Copperhill, Tennessee. His asthma kept him out of the military during World War II. He worked as a draftsman and installed telephone equipment before graduating from UT, where he met his wife, Sara (later Sarah) Booth at the Tyson Episcopal Center, where they would play the piano rather than attending football games. (The fate of his Chickering piano figures in his book Our Man in Belize.)
Conroy earned the baccalaureate in political science in 1950. Following graduation he worked for several years for the Social Security Administration in Tennessee and later for the nuclear plant in Oak Ridge. He moved to Washington in 1956, when he joined the State Department. After postings to Switzerland, Belize, and Austria, Conroy became a scientific liaison to the Atomic Energy Commission.
In 1969 he turned down an assignment to New Zealand, choosing to stay in Washington when his wife’s career as a Washington Post reporter and columnist began to take shape. In 1970 he joined the Smithsonian’s international affairs office, where he greeted foreign visitors, assisted Smithsonian researchers abroad, and helped bring international scientists to Washington. He retired in 1988.
He published two memoirs about his years at the State Department, Our Man in Belize (1997) and Our Man in Vienna (2000), and three murder mysteries set at the Smithsonian. Conroy became a skilled photographer, particularly of architecture, and his pictures were widely published in art and antiques magazines. His paintings and sculptures were often exhibited at the Franz Bader Gallery in Washington, and he also made the silver-and-gemstone jewelry that his wife was known for wearing.