<PAGE>


                                                                      Exhibit 31
                                 SARBANES-OXLEY
                                   SECTION 302
                                  CERTIFICATION

                  I, George B. Lemmon, Jr., certify that:

                  1. I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of
Owosso Corporation;

                  2. Based on my knowledge, this quarterly report does not
contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact
necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which
such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by
this report;

                  3. Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other
financial information included in this annual report, fairly present in all
material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows
of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this report;

                  4. I am responsible for establishing and maintaining
disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e)
and 15d-15(e)) for the registrant and have:

                           a) Designed such disclosure controls and procedures
         or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under
         my supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the
         registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to
         me by others within those entities, particularly during the period in
         which this report is being prepared;

                           b) Evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant's
         disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report my
         conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and
         procedures as of the end of the period covered by this report based on
         such evaluation; and

                           c) Disclosed in this report any change in the
         registrants internal control over financial reporting that occurred
         during the registrant's most recent fiscal quarter that has materially
         affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the
         registrant's internal control over financial reporting; and

                  5. I have disclosed, based on my most recent evaluation of the
internal control over financial reporting, to the registrant's auditors and
audit committee of registrant's board of directors:

                           a) All significant deficiencies in the design or
         operation of internal control over financial reporting which are
         reasonably likely to adversely affect the registrant's ability to
         record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

                           b) Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves
         management or other employees who have a significant role in the
         registrant's internal controls over financial reporting.






         Date:    March 17, 2004
                                                /s/ George B. Lemmon, Jr.
                                                -------------------------
                                                George B. Lemmon, Jr.
                                                President and Chief Executive
                                                Officer (principal executive
                                                officer, principal financial
                                                officer and principal accounting
                                                officer) and chairman