Biographical Text
Professor Emeritus of Industrial Education and Technology Clyde Charles ("Slim") Owen (April 2, 1923-), was born in Childress, Texas, the son of Johnnie Gault and Clyde E. Owen. Owen's father was a funeral director in LaGrange, Texas. In 1949, Owen married Jimmie Nell Taylor, the daughter of Eunice Ham and J.C. Taylor. The couple has four children: two sons, Howard Clay (February 28, 1952-) and James Michael (March 11, 1954-), and two daughters, Judy Lynn (June 29, 1959-) and Caron Lee (July 16, 1964-). Clay, a 1975 graduate of Appalachian State University, is married to the former Gloria Worf, and they have two children: Rachel and Matt. Mike, a graduate of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, married Mary Dell Joyner, and they have three children: Shannon, Shawn, and Daymon. Judy graduated from Appalachian State University in August 1985 and is married to Burton Davis. Judy and Burton have two sons, Burton, Jr., and Owen Taylor. Caron, having been awarded the four-year Chancellor's Scholarship at Appalachian State University, studied electrical engineering at North Carolina State University in Raleigh and is married to Greg Sowers. After graduating from Stephen F. Austin High School, Houston, Texas, Owen joined the United States Navy in 1942. He attended Texas A & I University, College Station, Texas (1942-43), and the University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky (1943-44), and took engineering classes as a part of his naval training. Owen also attended midshipman school at Notre Dame University, Notre Dame, Indiana, (1944). While in the Navy, he spent a considerable amount of time as an instructor for both enlisted men and officers. During his last nine months in the Navy, he was commander of a ship. After Owen left the Navy in 1946, he attended the Texas College of Arts and Industries, Kingsville, Texas, to work on a degree in education and industrial arts. He received a B.S. degree in 1949 and became a member of the faculty at Harlingen High School in Texas, where he taught woodwork, leatherwork, mechanical drawing, ceramics, jewelry, and art metal. During his thirteen years at Harlingen High School, Owen was twice chosen as the outstanding industrial arts teacher. His students consistently won top awards in national competitions, and Owen himself has won the second-highest number of national awards in industrial arts of any teacher in the United States and Canada. From 1953, when Owen's students first entered the Ford Motor Company's Industrial Arts Award Program, until 1962, when Owen left Harlingen High School, his students won seventeen first-place awards (six of which were outstanding awards), thirteen second-place awards, fourteen third-place awards, six fourth-place awards, twenty-four honorable-mention awards, and one outstanding-design award. While teaching at Harlingen High School, Owen worked on his M.S. degree in education and industrial arts at the Texas College of Arts and Sciences and received his degree in 1952. During this time, Owen also served as chair of the Texas Curriculum Studies of Vocational Education and Industrial Arts and was a member of the State Evaluation Committee on the Texas curriculum studies of vocational education and industrial arts. Before leaving Harlingen High School, Owen helped develop and build adult education classes in Harlingen, Texas. Owen taught adult night classes in ceramics, leather, and woodwork. He also took thirty hours of postgraduate work in art at Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos; at Highlands University, Las Vegas, New Mexico, and at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Owen came to Appalachian State Teachers' College (now Appalachian State University) in 1962 as an associate professor in the Department of Industrial Arts. Owen was appointed to the graduate faculty in 1964 and was promoted to professor in 1973. He received the Trustees' Award for Outstanding Teaching in 1971 in recognition of his contributions to the university. While at Appalachian State, Owen served on the Graduate Council and the Faculty Welfare Committee. He was president of the South Texas Industrial Arts Association and a life member of the Texas Industrial Arts Association and of the American Industrial Arts Association. He was also a member of Epsilon Pi Tau, the Harlingen Teachers Association, the Texas State Teachers Association, and the North Carolina Industrial Arts Association. Owen retired from his position at Appalachian State University in 1982 and was granted emeritus status by the Board of Trustees the same year. After his retirement, Owen set up a ceramics business in Harlingen, Texas, and has four shows each year. He also takes an annual trip to Mexico and has traveled to East Africa and Australia. While in Boone, he ran the Beech Mountain Ski Patrol for eleven years, and the "old gang" has a reunion every two years in Aspen, Colorado. Finally, in his spare time, "Slim" rides a bicycle twenty miles a day, three or four days a week-about three thousand miles per year. To celebrate his seventy-second birthday, he rode 102.1 miles to Kingsville, Texas. Ask him why he did it, and he will tell you, "Just to see if I still could." In 2003 he rode 4,044 miles and retired his old bicycle with 39,000 miles on it. Sources: Appalachian State University files and personal correspondence. -Dr. Richard D. Howe
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