Read the NYTimes Obit of Donald Conroy

If you want a sense of balance and some information I don't think is mentioned here, read the obit from the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/14/us/donald-conroy-77-model-for-the-great-santini-dies.html

No one knows the real story of why his wife divorced him, but one can guess.

I find it very interesting that his son Pat is still able to function, apparently, even after the emotional and psychological contortions that must have been required of him to both write the novel and stay in any kind of relationship with his father.

To my mind, Pat's eulogy of his father could be the subject of a PhD dissertation in abnormal psychology.