obituary

Mac "Pa Paw" McConkey


Mr. Ervin Bagwell McConkey
May 20, 1921 - September 13, 2008
COLUMBIA - Services for Ervin Bagwell McConkey, 87, will be held Wednesday, September 17, at 2 p.m. at Eastminster Presbyterian Church. Serving as honorary pallbearers will be members of the Golden K Kiwanis. The family will receive friends in the church parlor after the service. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the church.
Mr. McConkey died Saturday, September 13, 2008. Born in Etowah, Tenn.,he was the son of the late Carl Emerson and Kate Bagwell McConkey. A graduate of Madisonville High School, he attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville where he was assistant trainer for the football and basketball teams. He left school to volunteer for service in WW II. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard from February 1942 until August 1945. He received a law degree from Sanford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and practiced law in Tennessee before employment with Aetna Life and Casualty Company. He retired from Aetna after twenty-eight years as superintendent of claims for the State of South Carolina. He was later employed by the Joint Underwriter Association as the Medical Malpractice Claims Manager. In 1980, he was named Claim Manager of the Year for South Carolina by the Claim Manager Association.
Mr. McConkey was a member of Eastminster Presbyterian Church where he served as Elder and Deacon. He was a member of the Golden K Kiwanis Club of Columbia and was an avid tennis player into his eighties.
Surviving are his wife, Millie Johnson McConkey; son, Robert B. McConkey of Columbia; daughters and sons-in-law, Candace M. and Gary Galliher, Vicki M. and Alton Boozer and Sally A. McConkey, all of Columbia; six grandchildren; and ten great-great-grandchildren.