BEAUFORT, S.C. — Pat Conroy, author of works including “The Prince of Tides” and “The Great Santini,” was remembered Tuesday as a “marsh-haunted boy” who battled sorrow and tragedy to create stories set on the South Carolina coast that enriched the lives of readers worldwide. “He was the best storyteller of our time and quite possibly of any time,” longtime friend Alex Sanders, a former president of The College of Charleston, told nearly 1,200 people attending a funeral Mass.