Professional Career

Shortly following graduation from high school, Owen went into the U.S. Navy for four years before going to the University of Massachusetts for his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. Upon graduation, Owen went to work for the General Electric Company's Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Schenectady, New York, beginning his lifelong career in the nuclear power industry. There he did the thermal engineering research required for the design of Naval nuclear propulsion systems.

While working in that intensive position, he also worked nights and weekends over twelve years to obtain first his master's and then the doctorate in mechanical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in nearby Troy. He moved to Chicago after completing his doctorate, there to do research at Argonne National Laboratory for the liquid metal fast breeder reactor. While living in Illinois, Dr. Jones purchased an 18-ft day sailer in 1974 which was trailed between his home there and Massachusetts. This little boat was enjoyed both on Lake Michigan and in the waters around Woods Hole and Martha’s Vineyard, usually being launched in Wood's Hole and sailed to Oak Bluffs, his parents having a home on Sengekontaket Pond.