He served in the United States Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1945, and then received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from Dartmouth College in 1945.

He was a senior trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice from 1955 to 1958.

[1] Owen presided over the Mafia Commission Trial and sentenced eight convicted defendants of racketeering on January 13, 1987.

[1] From 1960 until his death, Owen was married to Wisconsin-born Lynn Rasmussen, an opera singer.

[5] His opera Abigail Adams, based on the lives of the second president and his wife, was first produced in 1987.