Ray Owen

Raymond Cecil Owen (1 March 1905 – 16 January 2003) was an Australian agricultural scientist and politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1944 to 1947 and again from 1950 to 1962. Owen was initially elected as an independent, but joined the Country Party in 1949.

Early life Owen was born in Pickering Brook, Western Australia (on the outskirts of Perth), to Mary Ellen (née Passmore) and Oliver Edward Owen. He graduated from the University of Western Australia in 1923 with a diploma in agriculture, and later returned to university to complete a Bachelor of Science degree, which he received in 1934. Owen began working for the Agriculture Department in 1924, initially at the head office in Perth. He was later based for periods in Kalamunda, Manjimup, and Mount Barker. Owen worked for the Agriculture Department until entering parliament in 1944. He was also a part-time lecturer in horticulture at the University of Western Australia between 1935 and 1941, and from 1942 to 1944 was seconded to the federal Department of Commerce and Agriculture as an inspector of canned fruits and vegetables.

Politics Owen entered parliament at the 1944 Swan by-election, caused by the death of Richard Sampson. He stood as an Independent Country candidate, and polled 59.95 percent of the two-candidate-preferred vote to defeat Labor, Nationalist, and Country Party candidates. Owen ran as an independent at the 1947 state election, but lost his seat to Gerald Wild of the Liberal Party. Later in the year, he was elected to the Darling Range Road Board, which became the Shire of Kalamunda in 1961. He served as a councillor until 1965, including as either road board chairman or shire president for most of that time.