Clarence Phillips Connell was a Nashville native who graduated from Vanderbilt University School of Engineering in 1906. He became Superintendent of Parks in Nashville, during which time he supervised the restoration of the replica of the Parthenon in Centennial Park. Connell was appointed Superintendent of the new Vanderbilt University Hospital, which opened in 1925. He held this position until his retirement in 1949. Connell was also an award-winning horticulturalist and conducted much research in that field. He received the Dykes Memorial Medal for his hybridization of the iris "Dauntless" in 1929. He was also very active in hybridizing daffodils. Mr. Connell died at his farm in Goodlestsville in 1959.