Pioneering Neurosurgeon Frances Conley and US Olympian Phil Conley Leave $30 Million Bequest to Caltech

Phil Conley (BS '56), inducted into the Caltech Athletics Hall of Honor in 2014, and Frances Conley, the first tenured female neurosurgeon in the United States, leave a lasting legacy to the Institute.

Early in life, Phil and Frances Conley thrived on pushing the limits of their abilities and other people's expectations. They met on an athletic field at Stanford University, where Frances was enrolled in medical school and Phil, who had recently joined a tech startup in Menlo Park, was practicing javelin. Inspired to try the sport, Frances caught up with Phil as he was running laps and asked him to teach her how to throw the javelin. Their shared love of athletics became a through line in their relationship. Phil would later tell friends that what cinched the partnership was her ability to do 15 pull-ups "the hard way", with palms facing out.

The couple were the first to run San Francisco's Bay to Breakers race together, with Frances the first woman to cross the finish line. Frances' nephew Ron Sann recalls that, according to family lore, she had entered the men-only race on at least one previous occasion under the name "Francis" running in a trench coat. When discovered, her participation helped push the event to become co-ed.

Later in life, Phil and Frances settled in Sea Ranch along the northern California coast. During this time, they were major supporters of a local food pantry and contributed to the Sonoma Land Trust. Upon their passing, the couple left a significant bequest to the local medical clinic, where Frances had volunteered as a doctor for many years.

For Phil—an only child who was primarily raised by his father—attending Caltech as an undergraduate helped shape his sense of identity and achievement. According to Sann, he valued the Institute's unwavering commitment to merit which included admission earned through ability and effort alone. Through their bequest of $30 million, Phil and Frances have provided support for future generations to pursue their own paths towards excellence.

Scholar, Athlete, Olympian

"Caltech has had many Nobel Prize winners, but I'll be the only Olympian," Phil once quipped.

While not quite the only one, he was right about the rarity. The Institute's focus on science and engineering attracts more competitors from the Science Olympiad than the Olympic Games, but Phil thrived precisely because he embraced athletics alongside his studies.

"He thought that idle time leads to inappropriate use of time," recalls Sann. Staying disciplined through sports was essential to Phil's academic focus. He captained Caltech's basketball, football, and track and field teams, took up javelin as a freshman, and went on to set school records every year. In his graduation year, he represented the United States in javelin at the Olympic Games in Melbourne. In 2014, he was inducted into the Caltech Athletics Hall of Honor.

Phil's competitive spirit helped him succeed after athletics as he pivoted to a career in finance. According to Sann, he valued his time at the Institute in the classroom as well as on the sports field, joking that, while he had earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, he had learned everything he truly needed at Caltech.

That competitive spirit and the combination of mental and physical challenges remained central to Phil's personality throughout his life. Sann recalls visits with the couple at their home where Phil would enjoy completing several "challenges." Some were physical, like climbing a rope, while others were mental including trying to get the sand from a one-minute timer through in under a minute.

Neurosurgeon and Iconoclast

"A paralyzed patient walks, a mute stroke patient talks, a tumor patient borrows extra time. I knew then this was what I wanted to do with my life," Frances wrote about neurosurgery in her book Walking Out on the Boys.

Frances was a pathbreaker many times over in her chosen field, becoming the country's first female tenured professor in neurosurgery and, later, the first to have a full professorship. Along the way, she had to navigate ingrained prejudice about the roles women could play in society and sexism in the workplace.

"Fran wanted to break glass," says Sann. "She took great pride in being an iconoclast and showing that women could be equal in every way."

As she pioneered the role of women in neuroscience, she was able to use the challenges given to her as stepping stones to success.

"Some faculty surgeons enjoyed testing me by giving me difficult cases, such as a gallbladder or splenectomy, as opposed to hernias or hemorrhoidectomies, which are the cases usually done by those with the least experience," she wrote. "This turned out to be an advantage: by the time I finished two years of general surgery, I had done more difficult cases than had my male resident peers and the operative experience has served me well."

In 1991, Frances resigned in protest over the planned promotion of a colleague to chair of the department of neurosurgery at Stanford. According to Sann, she held that his actions toward women had disqualified him from a position of leadership.

Her stand sparked a national conversation about sexism in academic medicine. In an interview with Time magazine, she said: "What I have done, I hope, is help others open up a dialogue about this. If we can get men and women to start talking to one another about what gender insensitivity means, then we will have accomplished a great deal."

An Unexpected Question

Looking back, Sann recalls a conversation with Phil that led to an unexpected question. "I was explaining a company merger I was working on when he asked me: 'So how are you going to make an impact on this world?'"

New in his career, Sann had never contemplated this broader perspective. The question stuck with him and was an early glimpse of what Sann later came to recognize in both Phil and Frances, that behind their individual achievements was a strong drive to improve the world and help others. Sann notes that the couple were "the antithesis of braggards," finding their fulfillment in supporting others through volunteerism and visionary philanthropy. With their generous estate gift to Caltech, Phil and Frances have left a legacy that clearly illustrates how they have made an impact on future generations.