David M. Owen was born in 1924, in Saco, ME. During World War II, 1943-44, he attended Bates College, Lewiston, ME, a premedical major in the U.S. Navy's V-12 College Training Program.Upon leaving the service in 1946 he joined the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, as a Scientific Observer. His interest in photography soon led to work with deep-sea cameras, starting in 1947. In 1948, with a Ewing camera, he photographed the ocean bottom at a depth of 18 000 ft, at that time the deepest underwater photograph taken. He has been actively associated with deep-sea photography since then, through Project FAMOUS in 1974. He was a Research Associate on the Technical Staff. He was also among the early users of SCUBA-diving equipment in the field of oceanography in the U.S., beginning in 1952, and supervised the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's scientific diving program thereafter, until his retirement in 1980. He is the author or coauthor of some 31 reports, papers, and other published works related to deep-sea photography and SCUBA diving. In 1955 his book A Manual for Free Divers using Compressed Air was virtually the first detailed instructional manual published about this equipment.
Mr. Owen was the recipient of the Underwater Society of America's first N.O.G.I. Science Award in 1962.