SOUTH PARIS — James B. Owen of Stoneham died on February 11, 2023 at the Maine Veterans’ Home in South Paris with his family by his side.

Born on May 23, 1931 in Danville, VT, Jim grew up in Berlin, New Hampshire. He is survived by his wife of almost 48 years, Lucia Baker Owen, and by the children of his first marriage, daughter Patricia Jean of Gorham, ME and son Jonathan Douglas, his wife Zianibeth Shattuck-Owen of Park City, Utah, and their two sons Ethan Alessandro, also of Park City, and Alanson Elihu, of Greensboro, NC. He was a 50-year member and Master Mason in good standing of the Gorham-Sabatis Lodge, Grand Lodge of New Hampshire.

He graduated from Berlin High School in 1949 and from the University of New Hampshire in 1953 with a major in oboe. He played briefly with the New Hampshire State Symphony. In the Army after college he played in and conducted the 9th Division Band Training Unit Band and ran the Special Services darkrooms. He earned a degree in Business Administration at Burdett College in 1957 and an MA in Education at Boston University in 1958 and worked briefly in Boston before coming to Bethel in 1958 to teach music at Gould Academy, where he developed an orchestra, dance band, marching band and varsity glee club.

When the school separated from the town and enrollment dropped significantly, the music program eroded, but Jim had been advising an informal art club, and the transition to art courses and an entire Art Department began. His life as an artist changed because of attending The Haystack School on Deer Isle, where he met and worked with inspiring and important craftsmen. At Gould Academy he was fortunate enough to work for a series of heads of school who sometimes doubted his sanity but took the risk and let the Art Department grow, and in 1980 the gallery in the newly renovated Art Cottage became The James B Owen Gallery.

Between 1965 and 1975 he was president of the Maine Art Education Association, State Representative to the National Art Education Association and served on the board of the The Maine Arts and Humanities Commission. In 1981 he and Lucia were elected Fellows of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain for their collaborative work in (pre-digital) slide-tape productions.

He was an extraordinary teacher and craftsman. His own work in pottery, jewelry and photography has been exhibited and collected in a number of places here and in Europe. He was always proudest, however, of the students who discovered the disciplines he loved and went on to become musicians and artists in their own right. He was never concerned with ‘creativity,’ but with discovering the way an artistic medium made its own ‘rules’ by its very nature.

Jim fished the waters of the North Country throughout his life. The stories of trips with Stan Fox and Frank Vogt had a certain legendary quality – often imitated, never duplicated. Sailing, however, was his great passion, whether on his small cat boat or cruising with his wife on more imposing vessels on salt water. After retiring he continued making jewelry in his studio in his beloved house on Lake Keewaydin. Through all his adventures and successes, however, he loved his family above all, especially the many summers on ‘the lake’ watching children and grandchildren grow. He and Lucia often agreed that they were one another’s best. Jim was as dry, wry, fine and loving a dad, husband and friend as he was teacher and artist – an enviable epitaph.

There are not enough thanks on the planet for those who cared for him at the Maine Veterans’ Home. Anyone who wishes to honor his memory can make a contribution to The Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, PO Box 518, Deer Isle, ME 04627. The plan is to establish a scholarship fund for Maine art teachers.

The family plans a memorial at a later date. Arrangements are under the care of Chandler Funeral Homes & Cremation Service, 45 Main St., South Paris. Online condolences may be shared with his family at www.chandlerfunerals.com