Long-time Oak Ridger and World War II Veteran

Hubert Owens, age 91, son of George L. and Lula Owens, passed away on Oct. 19, 2013.

Mr. Owens was born in Crenshaw County, Ala., on Nov. 14, 1921. He was a former employee of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Technical Information Branch, where he worked for 30 years until his retirement on Feb. 28, 1983.

Mr. Owens served in the U.S. Navy 40 months at the Pearl Harbor Submarine Base, and with Admiral Bull Halsey’s Third Fleet in the first Naval bombardment of the Japanese mainland on the USS Chicago, a Baltimore Class heavy cruiser, during World War II.

Mr. Owens formerly worked for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company as an agent when he and his newlywed bride, Reba Inez Owens, first came to Oak Ridge in December 1948. Later, in 1949, he became manager of the Reserve Life Insurance Company of Dallas, Texas, in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]