David George Owen, 91, devoted husband, father and grandfather, of Miramar, passed away peacefully surrounded by his family on February 9, 2017, from complications of advanced Parkinson’s Disease. A native Floridian, David was born October 25, 1925, to the late George Francis Owen and Meta Flora (Irish) Owen, in the only house located on Clearwater Beach Island at the time. He spent his early childhood in Clearwater Beach and Stuart, Florida, but after the destructive Florida hurricanes of the 1920’s, his family moved to Old Hickory, Tennessee where David grew up. In 1942 he enlisted in the U.S. Naval Air Force where he served for four years as an airplane mechanic on Espiritu Santo, a major strategic naval air base in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II. After the war, David attended university on the G.I. Bill, earning a Bachelor of Science from Peabody College and a Master of Science from Vanderbilt University, focusing his studies on mathematics, statistics and chemical engineering.

In 1951 he married Betty Newman and they moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee where he did industrial research at Tennessee Products and Dupont and began studying the newly developing field of computer science at the University of Chattanooga. In 1960 David moved to Florida with his wife and daughters. After he completed graduate work in mathematics at the University of Florida in Gainesville, the family moved to South Florida where David taught mathematics and computer science and established the nationally recognized Computer Science Program at Dade County Junior College (now Miami Dade College). During the 1970’s David served as the statistician for the Research Department of the Miami Heart Institute. In 1980 he established his own statistical analysis firm, where he was later joined by his daughters and served as Chairman of the Board until his retirement in 1994.

During his time in the Naval Air Force, David discovered an enduring love of sailing and flying that he shared throughout his life with his family, friends, students and colleagues. Beginning in the 1960’s, he sailed extensively with his wife and daughters, making life-long friends within the sailing community while exploring the Florida Keys and remote, isolated out-islands of the Bahamas. In their Cessna 150, he and his wife flew on cross-country trips to visit friends and family, and David often took friends and visiting guests on airplane tours of the natural South Florida environment he loved. His insatiable scientific curiosity was reflected in hobbies ranging from scuba diving to astronomy. He is remembered as a generous and kind family man with a good-natured, quirky sense of humor and a particular fondness for puns.

David is survived by his wife of 66 years, Elsie (Betty) Owen, who is retired from a teaching career with Broward College, daughters Dianne (Bill) Owen-Nielsen and Patricia Owen, and granddaughter Christine Owen, as well as his sister Virginia (Bill) Rose, his sisters-in-law Marie Steele, Sue (Larry) Dorsey, and Pauline Newman and many beloved nieces and nephews. At David’s request, his body is being donated for medical education at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Many family and friends celebrated his life by visiting and expressing their love for David during his long illness. A memorial gathering is being planned for later in the year; arrangements will be posted online on the memorial page for David George Owen at www.legacy.com, where condolences and memories can be shared.