Memorial Minute for Roger Owen , 83- Harvard Gazette

"While there, as he wrote in his memoirs, he "discovered how close Nicosia was by plane to Tel Aviv, East Jerusalem, Beirut and Cairo," which initiated his travels in the region while on leaves and after demobilization. It was then that he "got really hooked on the East as a result of the heady combination of the sweet early summer evenings, Biblical ruins, and the insistent hammer of contemporary politics.""

"Owen's distinguished career as an academic started at Oxford, where he remained until 1993, the year he joined the Department of History at Harvard University as the A.J. Meyer Professor of Middle East History. At Harvard, he taught courses on various aspects of the modern Middle East, organized workshops and conferences that brought together scholars from different disciplines and areas, and mentored many students who now occupy leading positions as"

Roger Owen was born in London in 1935 and developed an interest in the Middle East during mandatory military service in Cyprus in 1955, then under British colonial rule. He noted Nicosia’s proximity by plane to Tel Aviv, East Jerusalem, Beirut, and Cairo, which led to travel in the region while on leave and after demobilization. He became hooked on the East because of summer evenings, Biblical ruins, and intense contemporary politics. He earned a B.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1959 and a doctorate in social sciences specializing in economic history from St Antony’s College in 1965. He taught at Oxford until 1993 and then joined Harvard as A.J. Meyer Professor of Middle East History, where he taught, organized workshops, and mentored many students. He died on Dec. 22, 2018, at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Read at Harvard Gazette