Malcolm Patrick Owens passed away on April 20, 2023, at home in Denham Springs, Louisiana. He was born to Robert Bruce Owens and Ida Belle Prevatt Owens in Seville, Florida and lived there until he left for college. Mac attended Florida State University for two years majoring in Physics and then transferred to Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). As their fight song says, Mac was “a Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer!” While at Tech, Mac’s roommate, Joe Brown, invited him home with him one night to have dinner with his family. It was that fateful night that he met the love of his life, Betty Ann Brown. They married on December 18, 1955. Mac graduated from Tech on June 9, 1956, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering.
After graduation, Mac accepted an offer from North American Aviation and he and Betty moved to California. While at NAA, Mac performed stress test analyses on the X-15 rocket-powered aircraft.
A year later, Mac accepted a position with Union Carbide and he and Betty moved to Victoria, Texas. While in Victoria, they had three children, Sherri, Duane and Sonya. Mac worked for Union Carbide for seven years then accepted a job with Fiber Industries and he and the family moved to Shelby, North Carolina. A little over a year later, Mac was transferred to Salisbury, North Carolina.
During the summer of 1967 Mac and Betty moved the family to Charlotte, North Carolina and Mac accepted a position with Celanese in the textiles, fibers and filtration industry of their business. While working at Celanese, Mac and a few of his colleagues were awarded four patents by the United States Patent Office for winding yarns onto bobbins. Mac also volunteered as the Pack Master of the Boy Scout troop through their church. Betty also served as a Cub Scout Den Mother.
In February of 1975, Mac moved his family to Lake Charles, Louisiana and went to work for Olin Corporation as a pressure specialist for the piping and vessels in the chemical processing systems of the plant. Before retirement, Mac and Betty moved to Cleveland, Tennessee. While in Cleveland, Mac and Betty volunteered to do many things with their church which included making ‘tin man’ figures out of used coffee cans and plastic funnels that the church sold as fundraisers.
After retirement, Mac and Betty moved to Haughton, Louisiana to be closer to their children and grandchildren. They continued to volunteer at their church and the local volunteer fire department. They rang the bell for the Salvation Army at Christmas time and were given a small replica of the bell for their many years of service. In 2012, Mac and Betty moved to the Baton Rouge area and spent their days tinkering around the house.
All through his life, Mac had a shop where he spent many hours creating beautiful items with wood and metal such as a wooden barbeque tool storage stand and all of the tools that it stored, a wooden highchair for his children that has also been used by some of his grandchildren and great grandchildren, tables, bookcases, a wooden sewing bench, lamps, clocks, and knick-knacks. He made a complete erector set for his son one Christmas, case and all. If Mac couldn’t find something that he wanted or needed, he would make it himself.
Mac is survived by his loving wife Betty, daughter Sherri Cargill and husband John, son Duane and wife Dawn, and daughter Sonya Galloway and husband Chip. Grandchildren include Karen Barrios, Michael Bush and wife Hannah, Joshua Cargill, Shelby Owens and partner Kayci, Marty Owens, Andy Nelson, and Maddie Nelson and partner McClain. Great-grandchildren include Merle Barrios, Jessie Barrios, Brady Bush, Camden Bush, and Cora Bush. Mac is also survived by many beloved Owens and Brown relatives.
“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments but what is woven into the lives of others.” ~Thucydides
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.oursofh.com for the Owens family.
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