Roger Gant Powell, an investment banking executive, conservationist and former Maryland Zoo board chair, died of anemia Jan. 1 at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina. The former Roland Park and Garrison resident was 75.
Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he was the son of Catherine Gant Powell and Robert J. Powell Jr., a banker who had a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
He earned a degree from Davidson College and went into investment banking at United Carolina Bancshares in 1975.
He met his future wife, Anne Bear Powell, at a family dinner in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.
In 1983, he joined the old Alex. Brown & Sons, the East Baltimore Street investment firm. He became a managing director through the firm’s acquisitions by Bankers Trust Co. and Deutsche Bank.
Mr. Powell joined Janney Montgomery Scott as a managing director in 2008, formed his own consultancy in 2016 and joined the Burke Stelling Group in 2021.
He defeated pancreatic cancer in 1994 under the care of Johns Hopkins Hospital.
He enjoyed traveling the world and made friends everywhere he went. He was a conservationist and actively engaged with the community.
Mr. Powell was an honorary member and former chair of the Board of Trustees of the Maryland Zoological Society and a founding member and first chair of the Board of Directors of Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project Inc.
Mr. Powell was an avid outdoorsman, fisherman, sailor and gardener.
“He was a raconteur. He told of experiences and his adventures. He loved history and repeated stories he had read,” said his wife, Anne Bear Powell. “The first thing everyone said about Roger was that he was such a gentleman. And he was always making friends with strangers.”
He defeated pancreatic cancer in 1994 under the care of Johns Hopkins Hospital and was later a founding member of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center’s National Advisory Board. He was also a board member of the Maryland Institute College of Art and served on the finance committee of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society.
He was a donor to the Arbor Day Foundation and the Boys & Girls Home. He belonged to the Cape Fear Country Club, Carolina Yacht Club, the Elkridge Club and the Baltimore Bachelors’ Cotillion.
A service celebrating his life will be held at noon Jan. 24 at St. James Parish in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Survivors include his wife, Anne Bear Powell; his mother, Catherine Gant Powell, of Greenville, North Carolina; a daughter, Anne Powell Goldsborough, of Baltimore; two sons, Roger Gant Powell Jr., of Brooklyn, New York, and Samuel Bear Powell, of Brisbane, Australia; two brothers, Robert J. Powell III, of Greenville, and Ronald M. Powell, of Davidson; a sister, the Rev. Catherine R. Powell, of Wilmington, and five grandchildren.
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