Description

Yacht designer and MIT Faculty

George Owen (1877-1959) was a yacht designer and professor in MIT’s Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. After graduating from MIT in 1894, Owen worked as a draftsman at a Lawrence, MA textile mill and the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, as an engineer at an Ontario steel company, and a designer at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, MA, all while designing a string of successful sailing yachts on the side. In 1907, he became a full-time naval architect, turning out yachts and commercial vessels. In 1915, he accepted a teaching position at MIT, where he specialized in teaching yacht design. He continued developing yacht designs at MIT, perhaps most enduringly, drawing the MIT Tech Dinghy that is still in use at the Institute today.