John Owen

John Simpson Owen. 31 Dec 1912 to 23 Feb 95

While Director of National Parks in Tanzania from 1960-70 he raised "3 million to open up the park system, build roads and buy equipment, and he turned a small lab into the flourishing Serengeti Research Institute.

Owen also created nine other national parks, including Arusha and Gombi, and was instrumental in training Africans as wardens and was one of the first to recognise the importance of introducing children to the animals that shared their land. (in 1971 he was awarded the Gold Medal from the World Wildlife Fund and its Order of the Golden Ark in 1975).

In 1973 he left Africa for the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington DC, the think-tank on global ecology, before retiring to Tunbridge Wells, with his wife Patricia.

Owen, John . . . . Director of National Parks (at the time the colonial administration was relinquishing its control to the independant government of Tanzania). Described as avuncular, soft-spoken, and highly energetic, he was an orchestrator possessed with a vision for the Serengeti.... He raised money and amassed the equipment"

John Owen set up a small research unit, under Dr. Jacques Verschuren, famous for his work in the Congo.

.. .. we sped along the Great North Road into Arusha in fine fashion.

Coffee, as is well known, does wonders to the bloodstream. It turns haggard, droop-eyed, grey-faced individuals into reasonable humans once again. It also makes them think that a wash and a shave would be quite in order, and that a hot breakfast would not be resisted unduly. The New Arusha Hotel is used to this sort of thing. Filthy vagabonds arrive from all parts of the countryside, sign their muddy names in the book, disappear for an hour or so, and arrange a metamorphosis. As caterpillars become butterflies, so were we a markedly changed group as we strode out into the town to go about our business.

There was much to be done. The Gipsy was put in the hands of the Galley and Roberts garage. Barclays Bank was visited. Immense amounts of food were bought from the Fatehali Dhala store. Photographic arrangements were made with Malde's Camera Shop. Peter Champney, the local information officer, was visited, for he was to be of considerable value in liaising with the outside world. Permission was sought from John Owen, director of the Tanganyika National Parks, to camp in them.

At Arusha we were met by the new Director of National Parks in Tanganyika, John Owen, our guide all the time we were in Tanganyika.

Arusha itself with its cosy individual character, is unlike any other town I have seen in Africa. It was built by the Germans when they owned the province; they also built the road leading out of town, on which we met many Masai marching proudly and arrogantly with an accomplished feline grace.

....

To begin with, John Owen took us up to the Ngordoto Crater, a very recently created National Park, only an hour's drive from Arusha.

... [after a visit to Lake Manyara]

The Land-Rover lurched and plunged on the broken track, roared its way through torrents whose rush seems to have doubled in noise and intensity. I began to wonder how I should like to spend a night here with a breakdown, in this forest which now assumed a sombre and malevolent power.

We emerged after what seemed like an eternity, and with some relief returned to our perch on the rim; [the brand new Hotel Manyara] to a bath of kipper smelling water, a drink at the smart bar and a tranquil evening by the welcome fire. The young warden, Max Morgan Davies, joined us for dinner. ..

... [at Ngorongoro crater] Mr Phersen the district officer was putting us up.

... [to Seronera] We drove on to the warden's house. Mrs. Harver received us, and took us straight to the guest-house for a welcome bath.

... In the afternoon, the Chairman of the Tanganyika National Parks, Mr. Hunter, took us up in his small plane and flew us right over the Serengeti Plain.

... [Next stop Dar-es-Salaam.] The pilot of the small charter plane accommodatingly took us right over the splendid grey ash cone of Ol Doinyo Lengai, the Masai's Mountain of the Gods, a still sub-active volcano, puffing out clouds of sulphuric gases. A minute later we looked down into its neighbour the Embegi volcano, now extinct, its forested crater containing a lake. Clouds of flamingos were whirling like pink snow below us, shimmering against the blue water. The sides were very steep, their ravines thick with ancient forests. Such an intimate view of this farouche lonely giant could never have been achieved in any other way.

Tall, blue-eyed, vigorous and determined, he [John Owen] is a fitting son to one of Kenya's best-known and most controversial earlier figures, the Rev. Walter Owen, Archdeacon of Nyanza from 1918 to 1944, who belonged to the old school of fighting missionaries - fighting for the right as he saw it, a Christian who pulled no punches and was know to those whom he had punched as the Archdemon.

On our way there we stayed in Arusha with John Owen and his wife. He was now in charge of Tanganyika National Parks.

recently appointed as Director of National Parks. With enthusiasm and determination he had established the Serengeti Research Project, later to become the Serengeti Research Institute.

Tanzania National Parks, with John Owen directing, created the Serengeti Research Institute (SRI) as a base where teams of scientists could unravel the complexities and tune into the cyclic, biological rhythms of this unique ecosystem.

[Iain Douglas-Hamilton] presents thesis at 'Elephant Conference' in Ndala.

John Owen, flew in;

Desmond Vesey-Fitzgerald, by Land-rover from Arusha;

Harvey Croze, and Nani came in a Combie;

Mike Norton Griffiths, and Annie, senior ecologist of the Serengeti;

Dennis Herlocker, an American in charge of forestry in the Serengeti;

David Western, from Amboseli, studying the ecology of the Maasai and wildlife drove in from Kenya;

Hugh Lamprey, Director Serengeti Research Institute flew his glider from the Serengeti

by 1970, when John Owen had achieved virtually all of his aims, he felt his continued presence to be no longer beneficial for Parks. In a effort to secure greater political stability for the organisation he had done so much to build, he surrendered his post to a citizen of the country and remained in the background for another year to help in any way he could. John finally returned to England in 1971, leaving behind a sense of irreplaceable loss among those who valued his remarkable achievements and admired his qualities.

John Simpson Owen. 31 Dec 1912 to 23 Feb 95