Harmony and Hustle

David Coney '00 is a person people trust in Friendswood, Texas.

For 25 years, Coney has built a reputation as a financial adviser and regional leader at Edward Jones by counseling clients and mentoring 57 fellow advisers about income and long-term lifestyle impacts.

Coney credits his Trinity University education, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business with a concentration in finance, for setting him on that path. Coney's passion for financial advising was also developed through the encouragement of the late Trinity Trustee A. Baker Duncan.

"I was fortunate to have Baker Duncan as a mentor," Coney says. "He held an accountability prayer group at his home on Sunday evenings. His mission was to teach us to do the best we can with what God gave us. He held us accountable for leadership, spiritual growth, and making Trinity a better place."

Coney became a fully licensed financial adviser on September 17, 2001. Since then, he has built a career centered on relationships.

"I love being a financial adviser and working at Edward Jones," Coney says. "My favorite part is the deep, lasting relationships I have with my clients, helping them achieve what is most important to them and watching them enjoy it."

Long before his professional success, Coney distinguished himself on the football field as a leader on Trinity's offensive line. He earned five different All-America accolades from four organizations in the 1998 and 1999 seasons. Football Gazette selected him as the 1998 NCAA Division III Offensive Lineman of the Year. During his time with the Tigers, the team compiled a 43-4 overall record, a 19-1 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) mark, won four SCAC championships, and made three NCAA playoff appearances, including back-to-back semifinal runs.

All those achievements were noticed by the Trinity Athletics Hall of Fame Selection Committee. As a result, Coney will be inducted to the Hall of Fame on October 17 during halftime of the Alumni Weekend home football game against Maryville College (Tennessee).

His head coach and offensive line coach, Steve Mohr, a 2015 Hall of Fame inductee, says Coney played an important role on and off the field.

"He got a lot of accolades his senior year," recalls Mohr, who guided the Tigers from 1990 to 2013. "More importantly, he was our leader. He learned from some seniors playing alongside him and adjusted. He grew into the role and became the leader of the entire football team. By his senior year, the players elected David as a team captain."

Coney also excelled as a member of the Trinity University Symphony Orchestra.

"I chose Trinity because I wanted a place where I could play football as well as perform in the orchestra and get a world-class education," Coney says. "Trinity gave me all three, and then some. I was offered an orchestra scholarship to play the string bass at Trinity and was the principal bassist for four years, and I really enjoyed it."

Coney met his future wife, the former Andrea Shroyer, at Trinity during their first year. She was a work-study student under then equipment manager Matt Saenz and was distributing shoulder pads. Coney remembers he looked at Andrea and told his mom, "I think I'm going to like it here!"

The couple were married on May 20, 2000, one week after graduation. They have two daughters and a son: Kendall, a first-year law student at the University of Texas; CC, an English major and junior at Macalester College in Minnesota; and Colton, a junior at Clear Creek High School.