Pat Conroy, who turned tales of his painfully dysfunctional family into best-selling novels such as "The Great Santini" and "The Prince of Tides," died on Friday at the age of 70, his publishing company said.
Conroy, who had announced in a Feb. 15 Facebook post that he had pancreatic cancer, died at his home in Beaufort, South Carolina, surrounded by family and loved ones, said Todd Doughty, a spokesman for Doubleday.
“The water is wide and he has now passed over,” said his wife, novelist Cassandra King Conroy.
Much of Conroy's work was inspired by a dark muse - his father, U.S. Marine Colonel Donald Conroy. The elder Conroy was a fighter pilot who fought in four wars - World War Two, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the long-running conflict with his family. He was a tyrant who beat his wife and children.