Admiral Owen Paris is one of Starfleet's most senior officers. Kathryn Janeway once served under his captaincy aboard USS Al-Batani NCC-42995, an Excelsior-class starship. By 2376 Admiral Paris is in overall command of Project Pathfinder.

The above picture of Admiral Paris is actually a psionic projection created by an alien intruder from a species called Botha. The hostile alien locks crewmembers into near-catatonic states by drawing on memories and images of their past. The image of Admiral Paris harangues Tom Paris for his past mistakes, highlighting the younger Paris' ill-feeling toward his father, but in fact the real father misses his son deeply and regrest the painful rift between them.

In his private life Owen Paris maintains a difficult relationship with his only son, Thomas Eugene Paris who is currently serving aboard USS Voyager, the very starship which Project Pathfinder has been seeking to contact.
Tom Paris recalls with ill-feeling his father's unwillingness to accept anything less than a perfect performance from him [#24 Persistence of Vision], [#103 Thirty Days].
Owen Paris is a firm believer in Starfleet's primary guiding principal, General Order 1 also known as the Prime Directive. He lectures his family on the subject on an annual basis [#4 Time and Again].
As a child Tom wanted to join the Federation Naval Patrol but his father wanted him to fly a vessel with Starfleet insignia [#103 Thirty Days].
Owen Paris took his 8-year old son for his first flight, in an old S-class shuttle, two seats, no warp drive, manual helm control [#125 Alice]. When Tom was aged 16, he "borrowed" his father's shuttlecraft for a joyride but a mishap sent it to the bottom of Lake Tahoe [#88 Vis à Vis].
Owen Paris may not know that his son lost his virginity at the age of 17 while he and his wife were away [#31 Threshold].
When Admiral Paris served as an instructor at Starfleet Academy he tried to avoid favouritism to the extent that he marked his son a B-minus grade in a course on survival [#23 Parturition].
Owen Paris was deeply disappointed when Tom was expelled from Starfleet because, soon after graduating from Starfleet Academy, Tom served aboard USS Exeter NCC-26531 [#22 Non Sequitur] where he covered up his responsibility for a fatal accident in which three fellow-officers were killed, but Tom later admitted what he had done [#1&2 Caretaker]. The incident greatly widened the rift between father and son, exacerbated by Tom joining the Maquis. Any attempt to heal the rift seemed lost when USS Voyager, with Tom on board, was lost in the Badlands in 2371. But news of Voyager reached the Federation in 2374 after Voyager's Doctor briefly visited the Alpha Quadrant [#82 Message in a Bottle]. During Tom's absence, Owen has been promoted to Admiral. At times Tom has tried to build bridges to mend the strained relationship with his father: correspondence could not be sent in [#83 Hunters] but Tom dictated a letter during a term of solitary confinement [#103 Thirty Days] to be despatched to Admiral Paris once Voyager was within range of Earth.

[Pathfinder]

From the moment that news of Voyager is received in the Alpha Quadrant, Starfleet sets up a project whose aim is to establish contact with the starship and find a way to bring ship and crew home as quickly as possible. Commander Peter Harkins is in charge of the Project Pathfinder team, and he reports directly to Admiral Paris e.g. on the various attempts to contact Voyager such as a failed transwarp probe design and co-development with a group of Vulcan scientists of MIDAS (also known as "the MIDAS Array"). Until Barclay's breakthrough in 2376 depicted in [Pathfinder], no one knew that MIDAS, a communications apparatus designed to relay messages over extended distances, would prove pivotal for making transmissions between Pathfinder and Voyager. MIDAS is a loose acronym derived from Mutara Interdimensional Deep Space Transponder Array.

It is unclear from the tv where Admiral's office is located, but it is in the same building as the Pathfinder lab i.e. in the Communications Research Center skyscraper in San Francisco at Starfleet Headquarters, and is probably close to, if not adjacent to, the lab and its facilities. The Admiral's office has a view out from the tower block. Its windows are marked with the Starfleet crest. Behind his desk (which seems to be made of wood) are the flags of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets. Among the items on his desk is a picture of his son Tom which is placed in a prominent position. "I haven't forgotten my son for one day," he informs Barclay [Pathfinder].

[Pathfinder]	[Pathfinder]
[Pathfinder]	[Pathfinder]
[Pathfinder]	[Pathfinder]

[Pathfinder]

The picture on the desk in the righthand picture is a blooper.

[Pathfinder]

Blooper details: The combadge is incorrectly on the right breast, and the pictures show Tom Paris' face at fractionally different angles. The picture of Tom Paris as a Starfleet Cadet and as a younger man is (cleverly) that of Robert Duncan McNeill (who plays Tom Paris) as Cadet Nick Locarno in [TNG: The First Duty] which was filmed a few years earlier.

At first it seems that no one believes Barclay's plan for contacting Voyager can work, even after appealing directly to Admiral Paris: the MIDAS Array would fire a tachyon beam to open a micro-wormhole to the Delta Quadrant and transmit a datastream communication through it.

Lt. Reginald Barclay

However, the Admiral examines Barclay's work and believes it could work but when he informs Commander Harkins of this fact he is disappointed to learn that, without authorisation, Barclay had tried to implement his plan and apparently failed. Just as the Admiral says Barclay has put him in a difficult position, Janeway's voice is heard - and first contact with Voyager is made! Admiral Paris is able to speak with Janeway for a few brief moments.

During the first conversation between Pathfinder and Voyager, no words were exchanged between father and son, but Janeway did the next best thing:

Janeway: "They're an exemplary crew, your son included."
Admiral Paris: "Tell him, tell him I miss him and I'm proud of him."
Janeway: "He heard you, Admiral."

[Pathfinder]

[Pathfinder]

[Pathfinder]

The first conversation between Project Pathfinder on Earth and USS Voyager in the Delta Quadrant [#130 Pathfinder]:

part 1 part 2 - Admiral Paris' words

In 2377, on stardate 54208.3, [Inside Man], after two attempts to despatch to Voyager an experimental hologram based on Lt. Barclay, Admiral Paris decides to revert to sending Voyager the usual package of tactical and other data together with letters from home. But Barclay, aided by his friend and former counsellor Deanna Troi, uncovers a plot by three Ferengi who have kidnapped the Barclay hologram, reprogrammed it and sent it to Voyager to lure ship and crew into a lethal geodesic fold in space. Admiral Paris interviews Leosa, accomplice of the Ferengi plotters The Admiral fears the worst for USS Voyager's crew The Admiral orders a starship to converge upon the position of the Ferengi's ship even though it has no hope of reaching it before Voyager meets its doom. Luckily Barclay manages to rescue ship and crew by masquerading as the modified hologram and successfully orders the Ferengi to close the geodesic fold.

Admiral Paris in the Pathfinder lab with Deanna Troi. [Inside Man] Delighted, Deanna Troi and the Admiral congratulate Lt. Barclay. [Inside Man]

Later in that year, on or about stardate 54732.3, depicted in [Author, Author], Admiral Paris and Barclay participate in the inaugural live contact between Voyager and Project Pathfinder, achieved by Operation Watson. Admiral Paris says that it will be up to Janeway to decide how the 11 minutes of daily live air-time is to be apportioned.

Admiral Paris, as seen on Voyager's astrometrics lab main viewscreen [Author, Author]

Not long afterwards, Barclay brings the Admiral's attention to a holonovel called 'Photons Be Free' by Voyager's EMH. The Admiral is concerned by its contents which seem to portray Voyager's crew in an unfavourable light. But it turns out that Ardon Broht, of the publishers Broht & Forrester (which publish the popular 'gumshoe' holoseries 'Dixon Hill' see in [TNG: The Big Goodbye], [TNG: Manhunt] and [Star Trek: First Contact]), has ignored the Doctor's instruction to await a revision of his draft before publishing. Broht argues that under Federation law holograms have no legal rights, so Voyager's crew mount a case to try and prove that he is a 'person' and as such, and as an 'artist', he has the right to control how his artistic output is published.

the hearing at Pathfinder lab: present are Admiral Paris, Lt. Barclay, the Federation Adjudicator and Ardon Broht; at the end of the comlink are Janeway, the Doctor and Tuvok

Admiral Paris arranges for a Federation Adjudicator to hear the case at the Pathfinder lab. Because live contact between Pathfinder and Voyager is limited to only 11 minutes per day, the hearing takes three days. The Adjudicator is not prepared to rule that the Doctor is a 'person' but does extend the definition of 'artist' to include him so that Broht is obliged to recall all copies of 'Photons Be Free' that he has published. As each of Voyager's crew have 3 minutes of unlimited air-time to talk to their friends and relatives back home, the time Owen Paris can have with his son is very short but enough to start healing the rift between them, although we do not actually know if they did talk during this time.

At the end of 2377, when Voyager at last returns to the Alpha Quadrant, Admiral Paris leads the welcoming party. Janeway: "Sorry to surprise you. Next time we'll call ahead." Admiral Paris: "Welcome back." Janeway: "It's good to be here." Admiral Paris: "How did you-" Janeway: "It'll all be in my report, sir." Admiral Paris: "I look forward to it." The comlink ends.

[#171 and #172 Endgame]

This short exchange between Admiral Paris and Captain Janeway is also enough for father and son to see each other. Shortly afterwards Tom Paris hears that his daughter has just been born - it will be quite a homecoming for the Paris family!
Pictorial family tree of (Tom Paris and) B'Elanna Torres

Voyager arrives back in the Alpha Quadrant. (pop-up window) [#171 and #172 Endgame]