A distinguished Starfleet admiral and the estranged father of Tom Paris who supported the effort to contact the lost USS Voyager.
Owen Paris was a respected Starfleet admiral whose high expectations weighed heavily on his son, Tom. Kathryn Janeway had served under him earlier in her career, and his reputation was part of why she recruited the disgraced Tom from a penal colony for her mission into the Badlands.
Tom's career collapse, after a fatal accident he first tried to cover up, left the two estranged. When Voyager was lost in the Delta Quadrant, the admiral believed for a time that his son was dead. Once Starfleet learned the ship had survived, he backed the Pathfinder project, in which Reginald Barclay and others worked to establish regular communication with the crew.
Through those links father and son gradually began to reconcile, and the admiral was waiting at Starfleet as the ship finally returned to Earth. Owen Paris served as Voyager's most important ally at Starfleet Headquarters, and his story mirrors Tom's growth from rebellious outcast to trusted officer.