Finding Aid for the Shelby Owens Papers, 1964-1990 (#2013-0007)

Abstract

Shelby Lee Owens III was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on October 23, 1935. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Louisiana State University in 1958 and worked as an engineer for Boeing Airplane Company, Hayes Aircraft Company, Dow Chemical Company, and Foxboro Instrument Company. Owens would then join the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas, in June 1963. Owens held progressively more responsible positions at the Johnson Space Center, where he worked on the Apollo, Skylab, and Space Shuttle programs. Owens worked as an Aerospace Engineer and Manager of Manned Space Flight Programs, from where he retired after 27 years of service. He received numerous awards for his contributions to the Space Program including the ASME George Westinghouse Silver Medal and NASA Exceptional Service Medal. After retiring from NASA in 1990, Shelby continued to support Space Exploration in various positions with Hernandez Engineering and Barrios Technologies for 10 years. Shelby Owens passed away on August 16, 2016, in Kingwood, Texas. This collection covers Shelby Owens’s career from 1964 to 1990 and includes correspondence, documents, awards, and ephemera.