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 A Lifetime of Loving the Natural World
A Tribute to Nancy Owen
Audubon influenced Nancy Owen from the time she was a child. She was born in Detroit in 1920 and remembered always wanting to be outdoors. Nancy joined Audubon at the age of twelve and enjoyed her Audubon connection through out her life. In her twenties Nancy organized camping trips for young women and camped throughout the West at a time when it was unusual to see groups of women camping without men. Nancy carried her love of the outdoors to her other avocation –sports. Nancy loved fencing, baseball, skiing, softball, badminton, tennis, archery, swimming, horseback riding and golf. She especially loved birds and birding.
Nancy taught physical education in high school where she encouraged her students to challenge the boys’ baseball teams to games which the girls often won. Nancy was devoted to helping her students, both boys and girls, realize their potential. While teaching in Connecticut she met her husband, Benton, a physical chemistry professor at Yale who shared her love of the outdoors. Together they traveled extensively throughout the world and took great pleasure in studying, photographing, and keeping records of the birds they saw.
When Benton retired they moved to San Diego and purchased a modest house on an acre of land near the water. Nancy fell in love with their small property and began a project to bring in plants and trees from throughout the world, mostly as a remembrance of their travels. In the large trees she hung feeders and she lined her balcony with hummingbird feeders. Nancy loved talking about the birds and wildlife which visited her property. She also took care of all the injured birds in her neighborhood.
Nancy was fascinated by Mayan culture and became so knowledgeable that she presented papers at various meetings. In 1974 she met Lynn Rose who was also presenting a paper on Babylonian astronomical observations. They met again twenty years later after the deaths of their spouses, fell in love, and stayed together until Nancy’s death.
 In June 2004, Nancy and Lynn traveled to Camp Denali in Alaska. This magnificent place instantly became the focus of her passion for conservation. Before Nancy’s death in January 2005 she created an amendment to her trust which left her home to Audubon. She stipulated that the proceeds will be used for Audubon’s Alaska state program. Nancy’s love of the outdoors and her intellectual curiosity will continue through this very generous gift.
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