TOGETHER AGAIN

by Rachel Greene

Based in part on an interview with Connie Owen conducted in 1979 by the late Frank Havard, Gamma Phi (South Alabama)

Long before their names became forever woven into the heart of Pi Kappa Phi, Durward and Connie Owen were just two teenagers in Roanoke, Virginia. They were two people whose partnership would grow into a lifetime of love, loyalty and shared purpose. Together, they built a life, a family and a legacy of service that shaped generations of fraternity men.

Durward Owen and Hazel “Connie” Manning met at Jefferson High School in Roanoke, Virginia. It wasn’t love at first sight, but something they unexpectedly fell into. “Durward and I met when we were both at the same high school,” Connie recalled. “He dated a good friend of mine very steady and we went to the same church. We were very, very good friends, and we each broke up with the people we were dating at the same time and started going together for some reason or other.”

They began “going together” in 1948, and their relationship grew stronger as Durward joined the Xi Chapter of Pi Kappa Phi at Roanoke College in 1950. Connie recalled the simpler, earlier days: “When we were dating, in his first year there, he had a little car, a little Chevrolet, I think. It had one seat in the front, and when I rode it in, I had to sit on a box.”

Both Durward and Connie were raised in working-class families that valued faith, discipline and commitment, qualities that would serve them well in the coming years.

Just 10 days after Durward returned from military service in 1952, the couple married. Eleven months later, he was given an early discharge to return to college. Together, they began building a life shaped as much by their faith in one another as by the calling that would eventually lead them into the heart of Pi Kappa Phi.

“After we were married and back in school, the Fraternity was our social life,” said Connie. Pi Kappa Phi became their community, plain and simple, a constant that remained until the end of Durward’s Roanoke College years.

After graduation, the Owens stayed briefly in Roanoke, where Durward began his career, and the couple welcomed their first child. But life soon called them south to Sumter, South Carolina, when, with Connie’s blessing, Durward accepted the opportunity to lead Pi Kappa Phi. Moving with a baby in tow wasn’t easy. They left family, familiarity and comfort, trading the known for the unknown. Still, Connie made Sumter feel like home, not just for her family, but for countless Pi Kappa Phi brothers who passed through each summer.

She made sure all of her Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity men, or her kids, as she called us, were well fed and taken care of. She was so special.

Durward would later reflect on Connie’s impact with unmistakable gratitude:

“Connie played a much larger role in the development, growth and success of Pi Kappa Phi than most would believe and certainly more than she has been given credit for. Her ability and willingness to put up with and indeed support my excessive fraternity work ethic has made my contribution possible. Without it, the two-year projection would have been it. Those who have been directly influenced by her character have been able to transfer that image and relationship into their personal and professional lives. I believe that these people have recognized that when all else failed, Connie would be there if they needed her.”

Together, the Owens showed thousands of young men what it means to live a life of values and service, not through grand gestures but through decades of devotion to each other, their family and the brotherhood.

In addition to being Durward’s perfect partner in life, Connie became a surrogate mother to countless traveling staff members over the years, a gracious host for visiting young men and a steadying constant in a role filled with movement and change.

“For all of us who worked for the Fraternity, Connie was our mom away from home,” said Wally Wahlfeldt, Upsilon (Illinois-UrbanaChampaign). “Hearing Connie say, as she often did, ‘Bless you,’ never failed to brighten your day.”

Chuck Barnard, Delta Delta (Truman State), remembered her as the first true Southern Belle he ever met. “She made sure all of her Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity men, or her kids, as she called us, were well fed and taken care of. She was so special.”

When asked if she was happy with the life they had built, Connie replied without hesitation, “Oh, it’s been glorious.” She continued, with a laugh, “I love him very, very much. Yes, there are times, and I don’t hesitate to say this, sometimes I am fed up to here, when I am so sick and tired of fraternity... but that is not really true.” If she could go back in time and choose to support Durward taking the executive secretary role and move from Roanoke to Sumter again, Connie said, “I would. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I really think in raising a family, it has been more of a help, having these fraternity men come through our home each year.”

In 2014, Pi Kappa Phi introduced the Connie Owen Order of the Rose Award to recognize spouses of Pi Kappa Phi brothers who have exemplified sustained involvement that advances the Fraternity’s mission. It was only fitting that Connie herself was the first recipient.

“We went there really thinking it was temporary,” Connie said. “But wherever Durward was, that’s where I wanted to be.”

As Durward poured himself into the growing needs of Pi Kappa Phi, Connie stood firmly beside him, not in the background, but in partnership. Their home became a haven, a constant for many men in their roles at Pi Kappa Phi, which were filled with constant travel and change. Connie offered warmth and wisdom; Durward, vision and guidance. Their strengths balanced each other and embodied the Fraternity’s values in action. They opened their home and their lives to countless young men who would never forget what that meant to them at the time.

In many ways, the award does more than just honor a spouse; it honors the idea that Pi Kappa Phi brothers often don’t build their legacies alone. It recognizes those steadfast partners, like Connie, who walk beside Pi Kappa Phi’s leaders, making their work possible. For Connie and Durward, the walk was always side-by-side.

Connie Owen passed away on September 23, 2020. Durward Owen reunited with his beloved wife on April 20, 2025. Together again, their legacy endures in the lives they touched and the brotherhood they helped shape.