Dale Owen
Ivan Dale Owen (2 August 1924 – 12 November 1997) was a Welsh architect in the modernist architectural style. The Glamorgan Archives and "The Independent" newspaper both described him as a 'leading figure in Welsh architecture'. He was a partner in the Percy Thomas Partnership before setting up his own architectural practice with his wife in Penarth in 1989. Among Owen's designs were BBC Broadcasting House, Cardiff, the entrance building and galleries of St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff, plus major developments at Cardiff University, Swansea University and Aberystwyth University. Early life and education. He attended Whitchurch  Grammar School in Cardiff, and in 1942 he went on to the Welsh School of Architecture. He served in the Royal Artillery between 1943 and 1946 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in June 1945. His war service took him to the North-West Frontier of India. After completing his professional training in Cardiff and at The Bartlett School of Planning in University College London, he went on to work in London and then for the Newport Borough Council Architects' Department and the Cwmbran Development Corporation. In 1954, he won a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Massachusetts Institute of  Technology, School of Architecture and Planning and Harvard Graduate School of Design as a research scholar. Professional career. He then spent over a year working for Walter Gropius's practice, The Architects Collaborative, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He returned to Britain, where he became a senior architect/planner with William Holford & Partners in London, where he worked on plans for the reconstruction of London after the war. He returned to Wales with health problems and in 1958 was hired by Percy Thomas & Son as an associate in their Cardiff office. By 1964, Percy Thomas & Son had become Sir Percy Thomas & Partners  and Owen had become a partner. He changed the philosophy of the practice, transforming it with a contemporary modernist style. In 1982, he served as High Sheriff of South Glamorgan. He was also and Deputy Lieutenant of South Glamorgan. In 1991, he became director of Cymric Building Preservation Trust until his death in 1997. Personal life. In 1964, Owen married Maureen Kelly. They had three sons Jason (who died aged 5, on 17 January 1984), Justin and Julian. Dale Owen died in Penarth on 12 November 1997, aged 73. His widow Maureen died on 29 August 2019, aged 84. There  is a memorial window to Owen and to his son who died in infancy in All Saints Church, Penarth. The window includes a depiction of Owen's design for the bell tower and Great Hall of Aberystwyth University, in which it signifies the Heavenly City.