Lynne Owen Penczer

Lynne Owen Penczer
1936 - 2025
Lynne Owen Penczer, anthropologist, died peacefully at home in Fairfield on Monday, October 27, 2025 surrounded by family. She was 89. Lynne was born in Evanston, Illinois and graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1953. She was the daughter of Stewart Owen, managing editor of the Chicago Tribune and Garnett "Garry" Owen, president of the Evanston Garden Club.
In 1957, Lynne graduated cum laude from Mount Holyoke College. Limited by the expectations of the times, she attended secretarial school and found an administrative job at the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C. There she met Lt. Peter A. Penczer, a recent graduate of West Point. They married on April 25, 1959, and settled in Germany, where he served as an engineer officer. She threw herself into the rustic adventure of domestic life in a small village in Germany, which was still recovering from World War II. Lynne soon learned German and made lasting friends. Everyone who met her was impressed by her powerful intellect, love of ideas, and deep curiosity.
In 1962, Lynne and Pete settled in Pete's hometown, Fairfield, Connecticut, where they lived the rest of their lives. Lynne raised two sons and was active in St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, the Junior League, the Student Volunteer Association of Bridgeport, and the Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College.
The women's movement of the 1970s came as a surprise, but she took full advantage of it, entering a PhD program in anthropology at Yale University in 1974. For a decade, she immersed herself in the Portuguese immigrant community in Bridgeport while researching her dissertation. Lynne learned the Portuguese language, traveled to Portugal many times, and made great friendships through her work. In 1986, Yale awarded her a PhD.
In 1989, Fairfield University hired Lynne as an adjunct professor, where she taught four courses over 21 years, working well into her 70s. In recent years, she distilled her dissertation into The Family Comes First: Portuguese/Americans in Bridgeport, Connecticut (Arlington, Virginia: Oneonta Press, 2018).
Besides her career, maintaining a home, and raising her boys, Lynne enjoyed acting and gardening, and she was a voracious reader and outstanding cook.
Lynne is survived by her husband of 66 years, Peter Austin Penczer; sons, Peter R. Penczer of Arlington, Virginia, and John S. Penczer of Arcata, California; two nieces, Susan Rosenthal of Phoenix, Arizona, and Garnett Cohen of Chicago, Illinois; and a nephew, Thomas Rosenthal.
Friends and family may visit on Sunday, November 2, 2025, from 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. at the Shaughnessy Banks Funeral Home, 50 Reef Road in Fairfield.
In lieu of flowers, those desiring may make a donation in Lynne's memory to: Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College, 50 College St., South Hadley, MA 01075-1486, https://www.mtholyoke.edu/giving.
To sign her online guestbook, please visit www.shaughnesseybanks.com.