BIRTH:               July 22, 1950 - Fort Dodge IA

DEATH:              November 11, 2020 - Las Vegas NV

SPOUSE:           Lari Conkel

CHILDREN:       Beau Conkel
                          
                          

GRADE SCHOOL:  Riverside Elementary
JUNIOR HIGH:        South Junior High

Retired USAF Lieutenant Colonel John Conkel passed away at his home on 11 November 2020. Fittingly that was Veterans Day. He passed peacefully with his wife, Lari, and her daughter, Stephanie, at his side. John was born in Omaha, Nebraska on 22 July 1950. He was 70 years old.

John attended Fort Dodge, Iowa Senior High School from 1966 to 1968. He earned three letters each in Baseball and Track. He was named Captain of the Track team his senior year.  Upon graduation John was awarded a Track scholarship to Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, Iowa. John graduated with honors in 1972.

After graduation, John enlisted in the USAF, and was assigned to Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada. While at Nellis, John earned his Master's Degree in Public Administration from the University of Northern Colorado.  He was then selected for Officers Training School in San Antonio, Texas and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in September 1976. 

John then attended two weapons controller schools at Tyndall AFB, Florida. His many assignments included Tinker AFB, Oklahoma where he held six different crew positions and flew over 2,000 hours on the E-3AWACS earning him his AF wings and an Air Medal. He was then hand picked for a prestigious assignment to the Pentagon where he served as an Executive Secretary for the USAF Scientific Advisory Board. John moved to Colorado Springs where he served in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex for six years. He participated in highly classified nation level projects and was promoted twice during his tenure. Following assignments included Tinker AFB, Osan Air Base, South Korea, and back to Nellis AFB where he retired in 1998. In 2006, John was a key member of the Joint Unmanned Center of Excellence at Creech AFB, Indian Springs, Nevada.  He led his team in developing flight rules and the Concept of Operations for all the services in their endeavor to standardize flight rules in the U.S. for the military.  John was then selected by NASA to integrate this  Concept of Operations for the civilian pilots. His team was named Contractors of the Year for the NASA/Dryden Research Center in 2013. John retired in 2014.

He is survived by his wife of 22 years, Lari of Las Vegas, his son, Beau and grand daughter Tatum, both of Parker, Colorado.

A TRIBUTE BY CLASSMATE MARI DAVIS:

I'm really pretty bummed. John was one of my closest friends from junior high through high school (especially in high school) and we had rekindled our friendship and met each other's spouses about three years ago. John and I could always talk to one another just about anything and everything (or so I thought while in high school only to learn when we reunited that we had shared some similar familial situations which really weren't discussed back in the day).

John was charming but stubborn, crusty but kind and sweet. He enjoyed being a prankster and he was fiercely opinionated, especially about politics (and we saw things quite differently but we accepted one another's perspective).

He decided about three years ago when they told him he was terminal and the transplant wasn't likely to materialize that he was going to make the best of the situation and live his life to the fullest possible. He told me that he and Lari were going to do what they wanted and he wasn't going to mope around the house. Publicly at least he was meeting his inevitable death head-on just like he had met so many other obstacles in his life.

Although I hadn't met John's son, Beau, I know how strongly John felt about being a dad and a grandad. He was so very proud of Beau. John was quite the guy when it came to his military career.

He was extremely proud of his accomplishments, as he should be. My husband shared John's gambling skills and they often competed at the machines when we met up with John and Lari, Although we didn't see one another frequently because of the distance in our respective home ports, the time we did spend together meant a lot and I was so very glad we rekindled our friendship.

I'm going to miss John because as far as I am concerned, it was just too soon. Rest well, my friend. I should add, how fitting it is that John passed away on Veteran's Day!