Dr. Powell was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, and graduated from the Medical College of Georgia in 1859. He was appointed Assistant Physician at the State Institution for the Insane at Milledgeville, Ga., in 1862, and in 1879 he became Superintendent, a post he held for 28 years. He saw the hospital grow during his 45 year tenure to become one of the largest state hospitals in the country.
Dr. Powell was considered a scholar of psychiatry. During the Civil War, he served in the Confederate Army. He was President of the American Medico-Psychological Association (1896–97).