RIP, Frank Melvin Papa Bear Conaway Senior

Frank Melvin "Papa Bear" Conaway senior, pater familias of a troupe of local circus bears, was found dead in bed in his Ashburton abode by his cub Frank. He was 81.

Conaway was elected to the MD House of Delegates in 1971 and was elected as the city's Clerk of the Court in 1998. 

He's survived by wife Mary, former Registrar of Wills, current Registrar of Wills Belinda Conaway, dereistic city council member Frank M. Conaway Junior (D-40th), some woman named Monica, and at least four grandchildren: Ray, Frank Melvin the 3rd, Lacynda and Kelly, the latter three of whom were arrested for pot dealing in 2013.

FMC Sr. was well-known for his family-themed campaigning at intersections and in median strips, and known around city office buildings for his spiffy style, which included well-cut broad-shouldered suits with pocket squares, jaunty bow ties and his trademark crumb-duster moustache. His rambling tangents at the city Criminal Justice Coordinating Council were often peppered with colorful turns of phrase ("Baltimore is turning into a Dodge City, a Deadwood, or more aptly, a Tombstone from the days of the Wild West, where gunfights erupted spontaneously and lawlessness reigned supreme.") and he also liked to repeat that adage about that owl.

He was also the reluctant defendant in that no-go 2006-2007 gay-marriage lawsuit Conaway v. Deane v. Polyak, the reluctant target of the karate kicks of blogger Adam Meister, and is the only person in history to lose elections to both Willie Don and Stephanie R-B. 

He was by all accounts a derelict office manager; under his tenure the Clerk's office regularly lost or improperly accounted for millions of taxpayer dollars and a 2010 legislative audit that found his office lost a prodigious $43.4 million in 33 months. 

But in a time before the Internet he glad-handed and bear-suited his way to an indelible political name brand, one that's kept voters checking off his family name on ballots more than four decades, and was one of those surprising, quirky characters that made living in this great city so worthwhile. 

We should all be such wise old bears.