Engaged Ownership

Owen Family—March 7, 1948

Owen Products was founded in 1948 by John Owen. John had returned from the War in 1946. He longed to get away from battle and return to his family's small farm in the east. The war had interrupted his education, and he planned to finish his engineering degree at the local university as quickly as possible. But upon his return, he found that his father, a kiln fireman in a clay drainage pipe factory, was gravely ill and his mother was struggling to care for John's younger sisters and brother. John put aside his plans to return to university and instead got a job at the same clay pipe factory where his father had worked. Construction was booming after the War, driving demand for clay drainage pipe, and the factory was operating at capacity. The discipline, focus, and maturity that John had acquired during the War led to frequent promotions. John soon found himself working as the afternoon kiln fireman under the watchful tutelage of the kiln supervisor, David Smith.

The eastern region had plentiful clay deposits, and the clay used by the pipe factory was of a variety particularly well-suited to the manufacture of drainage pipes, being able to withstand kiln firing at higher temperatures. David Smith was a scientist at heart and he found John Owen to be a quick study. David spent time showing John how the clay behaved when mixed with other clays in various ...