Richard Owen (geologist)

Richard Dale Owen (January 6, 1810 – March 25, 1890) was an American geologist and soldier. An officer in the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War, Owen taught for fifteen years at Indiana University and briefly served as Purdue University's first president.

The youngest son of Welsh social reformer Robert Owen, Richard Owen was born on January 6, 1810, in Lanarkshire, Scotland. He received his early education from a private tutor and from the New Lanark grammar schools. He was sent to Hofwyl, Switzerland, to study chemistry and physics at Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg's school. After returning to Scotland, Owen continued his scientific education under Andrew Ure at Anderson's Institution (now the University of Strathclyde) at Glasgow. In 1828, Owen arrived in the United States, where his father had established a utopian experiment in New Harmony, Indiana. During the Mexican–American War, Owen was stationed in Monterrey overseeing provision trains as a captain from April 1847 until August 1848.

In the summer of 1849 Owen assisted his brother, David Dale Owen, in conducting a geological survey of northern Minnesota and the shores of Lake Superior. Owen's duties primarily consisted of recording atmospheric pressure measurements and making illustrative sketches.

Owen then accepted a professorship in natural science at the Western Military Institute in Kentucky. He was a part owner of the institute when it relocated to Tennessee to merge with Nashville University. While in Nashville, Owen obtained his Doctor of Medicine degree from the Medical College of Nashville and published one of his major works, Key to the Geology of the Globe. Largely because of his anti-slavery opinions, Owen resigned from the Institute in 1858. Upon his return to Indiana, Owen was appointed assistant state geologist. When his brother died in 1860, Owen became the state geologist and an ex officio member of the Indiana University faculty.

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