Conway B. Sonne was born in Logan, Utah on December 28, 1917. He graduated form Utah State University, the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, and an advanced financial management program at Stanford University. Sonne was resident of Palo Alto, California, and worded as a financial officer of the Standard Oil Company of California from 1949 to 1981. He served in the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps as a financial analyst and liaison officer between 1943 and 1946. He served as an officer and director of many civic and business organizations, including a trustee of the National Maritime Museum Association, member of the Advisory Council, Utah State University, Director of the Nation Association of Credit Management, Director of the American Petroleum Credit Association, President of Credit Managers Association of North and Central California, and Director of the Palo Alto Little League. He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the New England States Mission and served in many church positions, including 1st councilor in the Palo Alto Ward Bishopric and as a member of the Palo Alto Stake High Council. Sonne authored six books and numerous articles on finance, history, and religion. His book include Knight of the Kingdom (1949); What Would You Write (1956), World of Wakara (1962); Saints on the Sea, a Maritime History of Mormon Migration (1983); Ships, Saints, and Mariners: A Maritime Encyclopedia of Mormon Migration (1987); and A Man Named Alma (1988). Sonne married the former Elaine Wintch of Manti, Utah, and the couple have four sons, two physicians and two lawyers.