Dan Conlon: Finding Aids : MNHS.ORG


	Creator:	Conlon, Dan, 1934-, creator.
	Title:	Dan Conlon papers.
	Dates:	1936-2014.
	Language:	Materials in English and Vietnamese.
	Abstract:	Correspondence, photographs, and digital recordings relating to the Vietnam War service of Minneapolis medical doctor Dan Conlon, who was drafted into the Air Force in 1966 as part of the doctor draft. Much of the material relates to Conlon's interest in and work with the Montagnard people of Vietnam. Also includes scrapbooks of correspondence, medical reports, daily notes, and other materials documenting his wife Kay's battle with terminal cancer some years later.
	Quantity:	4.5 cubic feet (4 boxes, 1 partial box, and 1 folder in 1 partial box) and 44 audio files: digital; MP3.
	Location:	See Detailed Description for shelf locations.

Daniel Casey Conlon (August 22, 1934-), a Minneapolis-born family physician, graduated from Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota, and earned his medical degree from the University of Minnesota in 1962. He was drafted into the United States Air Force in 1966 under what was called the doctor draft. He was stationed at the Pleiku Air Base in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam from January 1967 to January 1968. Conlon worked for the Air Force's medical civic action program (MEDCAP), which provided out-patient treatments to the South Vietnamese. In addition to this work, he managed a program that sold crossbows and other goods made by the Montagnard people to American military personnel as cultural souvenirs. He formed a deep bond with the Montagnard people and was inducted as father and brother in several nearby Montagnard villages. Following his service in the Air Force, Conlon resumed work as a family physician at the Bloomington-Lake Clinic in South Minneapolis, where he spent a total of thirty-seven years, retiring in December 1998.

Conlon wrote an autobiographical book about his time in Vietnam, with a particular focus on the Montagnard people, titled There is a Man Who Walks, which was privately published in 1999.

Conlon married Kathleen Mary Kelly on July 25, 1959 and together they had six children. Kathleen, who went by the name Kay, was born in Minneapolis and graduated from the College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota, in 1957, with a degree in elementary education. She later earned master's degrees in art therapy and psychology. Kay died of cancer in 2000.

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The collection includes correspondence, photographs, military documents and publications; and writings and related materials concerning the war and Conlon's continued interest in Vietnam and its Montagnard people. A major part of the collection consists of Conlon's written and recorded letters home to Kay from Vietnam while stationed there. The recorded letters, originally in the form of audio tapes, are in digital form. The written letters and other written Vietnam-era materials are available to researchers in digital form, the originals closed to general use.

The collection also includes scrapbooks of letters, family documents, and photographs assembled by Conlon while working on a self-published book about his nearly 40-year marriage to Kay, and medical reports, insurance and Medicare statements, and other materials relating to Kay's battle with cancer.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:



		Vietnam War Service
		Scrapbooks

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Access Restrictions:

Digitized portions of this collection are closed to general use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Conlon, Dan. Dan Conlon papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Location of Master Files:

Digital masters of audio files are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 17,341

Processing Information:

Catalog ID number: 990088826840104294

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Includes mainly materials created or acquired as a result of Conlon's service in Vietnam but also correspondence, notes, writings, and related miscellany regarding his service, likely compiled at a later date.

Location

Box

145.L.13.1B

1

Military documents and miscellany, 1967.

Includes a Montagnard language guide authored by Lick Rahlan and Jack Rudy.

DAN CONLON:

DETAILED DESCRIPTION