Joan Murrell Owens

Joan Murrell Owens (June 30, 1933 – May 25, 2011) was an American educator and marine biologist specializing in corals. She received degrees in Geology, Fine Art, and Guidance Counseling. She described a new genus, Rhombopsammia, and three new species of button corals, R. niphada, R. squiresi, and Letepsammia franki.

Life and Family
Joan M. Owens was born on June 30th, 1933, in Miami, Florida, to William and Leola Murrell. She was the youngest of their three daughters. In the 1960s Murrell married Frank A. Owens.

Joan Owens died on May 25, 2011. She was survived by her sister, Willette M. Carlton; two daughters, Adrienne Lewis and Angela Owens; and a granddaughter, Chara Johnson.

Education
With the support of her parents, Owens became interested in the life of the oceans at young age. In 1950 Owens graduated from Miami's Booker T. Washington High School. She was awarded two scholarships, one from the Pepsi-Cola Company and a Sarah Maloney (Art Scholarship) at Fisk University. She later entered Fisk University but the university did not offer a program in the marine sciences. Thus in 1954 she majored in fine art and received her BFA degree with minors mathematics and psychology.

For graduate study, Owens entered the University of Michigan with the intention to study commercial art. In 1956 she switched to pursue and later receive a Master of Science degree in guidance counseling with an emphasis on reading therapy. After that, she returned to Washington; to pursue marine biology, with support from her companion Philip Morrison, she entered George Washington University in 1970. George Washington University did not have an undergraduate program in marine science. Thus, she majored in geology and a minor in zoology to compensate. She received her B.S. in geology in 1973 and her M.S. in 1976.

Research
Continuing work toward her doctorate, she returned to Howard University in Washington D.C. as a professor of geology in 1976. Owens had sickle cell anemia traits, making research limited by her inability to dive for specimens. Instead, she conducted a laboratory project using coral samples collected by a British expedition in 1880 at the Smithsonian Institute. Her doctoral research investigated deep-sea button corals. Her dissertation was titled "Microstructural Changes in the Scleractinian Families Micrabaciidae and Fungiidae and their Taxonomic and Ecologic Implications." She received her PhD from George Washington University in 1984.

She continued her laboratory work at the Smithsonian to classify and study button corals. She began advancing to the rank of associate professor in the department of Geology and Geography at Howard University in 1986. She created the new genus Rhombopsammia and its two species in 1986. In 1994 she added a new species to the genus Letepsammia, naming L. franki for her husband, Frank A. Owens. Both genera are in the family Micrabaciidae.

Hobbies and Interests
With the support of her parents, Owens became interested in the life of the oceans at young age. She aspired to study marine biology professionally, her interest likely spurred from family fishing trips. One of her favorite books was The Silent World by Jacques Cousteau.

Teaching
Owens taught for two years at the University of Michigan's Children's Psychiatric Hospital. She later joined the faculty of Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1957, there she specialized in teaching remedial English. During the 1960s, she moved to Newton, Massachusetts and designed programs for teaching English to educationally disadvantaged students at the Institute for Services to Education. Later, this work influenced the Upward Bound program of the United States Department of Education.

Joan Owens transferred to the biology department of Howard in 1992 when the department of geology and geography was phased out, and retired from full-time work in 1995.