Glen A. Conner, 69, of San Mateo and Fresno, CA.

Glen A. Conner, the founder and co-owner of The Estheticians, a skin care center in San Mateo, died Sunday, February 5th at his home in San Mateo, following a battle with cancer.

Glen was born in Bozeman, Montana on December 1, 1942, the eldest son of Grace (Pfohl) and Alfred Conner. Grace’s mother was descended from early colonial settlers in New England, and her father was the son of Montana pioneers who emigrated from Germany and France, while Alfred’s family were of Scotch-Irish and French stock and came to America before the Revolutionary War. Glen spent his childhood in the Madison Valley, and grew up on the Climbing Arrow Ranch, where his father and uncles worked for many years. He graduated from Three Forks High School in 1961, where he was a talented basketball and football player. He later attended Western Montana College at Dillon, Montana State University at Bozeman, and Rocky Mountain College in Billings. While in Billings, he went to work for Paris Beauty Supply, and by the end of the 1960s he was also working as a distributor for the Neo-Life Company of San Leandro, CA. He was recruited in 1970 to become the VP for Neo-Life's Glöda cosmetics line, and relocated with his family to San Jose, California in 1971. He left Neo-Life in 1973 to study cosmetology, and in 1974 started The Estheticians in the city of Santa Clara, later opening a second office in Los Gatos before finally choosing San Mateo as the ideal location for his successful and innovative establishment.

Glen was married twice, first to the former Diana Hopper in 1962, and to Skadrite Loja, who became his business partner, in 1977. In the early 1990s, Glen began spending half of each week at his San Mateo office, and half at his home in the Central Valley. He was locally famous for the hot peppers, pomegranates and beautiful tomatoes he grew in his backyard garden, which he brought to San Mateo to share with friends. He was particularly proud of a variety of large tomato known as “Mr. Stripey.” He was as devoted to his garden as to his business, always striving for excellence.

Glen is survived by his two daughters from his first marriage, Kim Conner of Cold Spring, New York and her husband, Nick Groombridge, and Laura Strangio of Loomis, CA and her husband, Gregory; also by his brother Floyd Conner and wife Nancy of St. Helens, Oregon, his grandchildren Ian, Elizabeth and Ross Groombridge and Maria and Christopher Strangio, nieces Brenda Hopper, Barbara Chambers, Lisa Tracy and nephews Brett Conner and Jeremiah Hegele, both of his former wives and most of all, his “office family”, including Julie Young and Renee Amaral-Katz, who were his “tag team” and helped him so devotedly during his illness.

A memorial gathering will be held for Glen at his beloved Luceti’s Restaurant on 25th Avenue in San Mateo in mid-March, to be followed by an interment of his ashes in early July in the Fairview Cemetery in Three Forks, Montana.

Contributions may be made in Glen’s memory to the Madison Valley Ranchlands Group, a 501(c)3 charitable organization which works to preserve family ranches and ranchlands in the area where Glen grew up, the beautiful Madison Valley in Gallatin County, Montana. Please visit their website at madisonvalleyranchlands.org to learn more.