Walter Shepherd Owen, professor emeritus of physical metallurgy, died Oct. 10, 2007 at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was 87.
Owen joined MIT as head of what was to become the Department of Materials Science and Engineering; during his tenure as department head from 1973 to 1982, the department’s academic and research focus broadened from metallurgy to include ceramics, polymers, and semiconductors. Controversial at the time, this change created a department that today produces groundbreaking work in microphotonics, nanostructures, and bioengineered materials.
He received the Bachelor of Engineering in metallurgy (1940), the M.Eng. (1942), and the Ph.D. in metallurgy (1950), all from the University of Liverpool. In 1951, he became a Commonwealth Fund fellow at MIT, where he served as a member of the research staff from 1954 to 1957. Over the course of his career, he held both academic and administrative positions at several universities, including the University of Liverpool, where he was dean of Faculty of Engineering Science, Cornell University, where he directed the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Northwestern University, where he was dean of the Technological Institute and vice president for science and research.
He was deeply committed to the education of materials scientists and engineers and to furthering the evolution and development of the field of materials science and engineering, particularly in the areas of conservation, recycling, environmental concerns, public policy, and materials availability.
He is survived by his wife Geraldine Owen; his daughter Ruth Owen and her husband Peter Sherman and her children Owen and Dylan Uscher; his stepson Oren Lieberman and his wife Tanya Mergler and their children Mattis Lieberman, Nitzan Lieberman, and Tyler Moore; and his stepdaughter Helise Lieberman and her husband Yale Reisner.
Remarks by Sam Allen at the Memorial Service for Walter Shepherd Owen, November 15, 2007.
Walter joined MIT in 1973, at an important juncture in our field: the emergence of what we now know as Materials Science and Engineering from its roots in Metallurgy. The department, then Metallurgy and Materials Science, included significant fiefdoms led by powerful personalities, among them Morris Cohen, John Elliott, and David Kingery. A recently published major study by the National Academy of Sciences had given national prominence to educational and research opportunities in what it termed the “multidiscipline” of materials science and engineering. One of his first challenges was to build consensus on renaming his department from Metallurgy and Materials Science to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, a change that he accomplished in his second year as department head. The change was not universally popular, especially by some who were irked that the word “metallurgy” had been dropped from the department’s title after first appearing in 1889, but other top-ranked departments soon made similar changes.
Walter led a major effort to diversify and revitalize the faculty. In his decade of tenure as head, the department hired 21 faculty, 13 of whom ultimately were tenured and 7 of whom are still active. This period saw significant growth in the department’s ceramics and polymers programs while retaining its historical strength in metallurgy. Walter’s stewardship of the department at this major juncture in its evolution was critical to sustaining our position in the succeeding decades as the top-ranked department in our field.
Classroom teaching was also important to Walter and he was for many years the lecturer in our undergraduate class, Physical Metallurgy. I occasionally stood in when Water was traveling, and I know his secret for being able to be an effective teacher while also serving as department head: he gave multiple-choice examinations to minimize the time it took him to do the grading!
I met regularly with Walter in my first years as an Assistant Professor. He was full of advice and championed his young faculty by working behind the scenes to create opportunities for us to grow and to succeed professionally.
After retirement, Walter maintained a research presence, was active in consulting, and gave sage advice to his successor department Heads whenever asked. He continued to have a keen interest in the department, even as his health was failing. It was usually the main topic of conversation whenever we met. I’ve treasured the opportunities to get his reactions to changes---invariably swiftly and forcefully delivered, and nearly always hitting the mark. His continuous support over the years has contributed substantially to my satisfaction with my work, and it and he will be sorely missed.