Owen Link McConnell

Owen Link McConnell, 93, passed away on September 22, 2026, at Duke Regional Hospital in Durham, NC, after a period of extended illness. Owen was born on July 8, 1933, in Tampa, FL, the second child of George Brewster McConnell, Sr., and Aline Link McConnell. He graduated from Hillsborough High School in 1951, where he was president of the senior class and helped Hillsborough win the city basketball championship, garnering numerous honors.

Owen completed three years in the pre-med track at Duke University before being drafted into the Army and serving on an antiaircraft gun crew in Mannheim, Germany for two years. Returning to Duke, he completed a B.S. degree in psychology and a minor in zoology in 1957, and then completed his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 1963. After becoming an associate professor of child psychology at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1967, Owen worked at the state-run Children’s Psychiatric Institute (CPI) in Butner, NC, for nearly 30 years. Serving in many capacities, he directed psychological services for children and adolescents receiving acute psychiatric and developmental care, taught a yearly course on child psychotherapy at UNC-Chapel Hill, and trained many graduate students in clinical psychology.

Owen married Patsy Washam in 1958 in Kannapolis, NC. They built a life together and were inseparable for 68 years. They were long-time members of Duke Memorial United Methodist Church and active in local square-dance and nature organizations, but their greatest passion was actively exploring the natural world together. On weekends and vacations, Owen’s family enjoyed backpacking, camping, and birding in the NC mountains and coast. In the 1970s, Owen planned annual family birding trips to virtually every corner of the contiguous U.S. Many adventures and mis-adventures ensued!

After retirement in 1990, Owen embarked on a fruitful 'second career' pursuing several projects that brought together his passions of writing, photography, and natural history. He and a close friend built a cabin on West Buffalo Creek in western NC that would become a second home for him and Patsy and a gathering place for extended family and friends. His culminating project was writing a natural history of the understudied mountain ranges located south of the Great Smoky Mountains; he titled it Unicoi Unity: A Natural History of the Unicoi and Snowbird Mountains and Their Plants, Animals, and Fungi. In his later years, Owen turned from birds and butterflies to mushrooms and moths. As a citizen scientist, he found and described a species of bolete mushroom (Boletus durhamensis) that was new to science, and he photographed hundreds of species of moths that had never been recorded in Graham County and submitted them to the NC Biodiversity Project.

Owen also extensively researched and then wrote a two-volume family history that traced his direct ancestors back to Scotland, Ireland and South Carolina, and gave voice to many important women in the family tree. The book includes many original photos, letters, and documents, and it blends genealogical detail with rich historical context to create an informative family history for his descendants.

Owen is survived by his loving wife, Patsy Washam McConnell; his sister, Nancy Keyes; his sister-in-law, Joyce McConnell; and his brother in-law, Jamie Washam (Jane). He is also survived by sons David L. McConnell (Cathy) of Wooster, OH, and James O. McConnell (Deborah Hansen) of Swarthmore, PA; grandchildren, Brennen McConnell (fiancée Ana Cristina Palacio), Alaina Nutile (Nicholas), Michael McConnell (Brittney Pachucki), and Rachel McConnell; great-grandsons, Jackson and Noah Nutile; several first cousins; and many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his father, George, Sr., and his mother, Aline; his father-in-law, Reverend Conrad C. Washam, and mother-in-law, Beatrice Rector Washam; his older brother, George B. McConnell, Jr; and his brother-in-law, Don Keyes.

A private service and scattering of ashes will be held at a later date for immediate family. In lieu of flowers, please consider a gift in Owen’s memory to Partners of Joyce Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness, PO Box 984, Robbinsville, NC 28771

https://www.joycekilmerslickrock.org/

The McConnell Family is under the care of Hall-Wynne Funeral Service of Durham, North Carolina - online condolences may be made at www.hallwynne.com/obituaries/