• Professor of Zoology, Queen's University Belfast 1964-1979
• Pro-Vice-Chancellor 1974-1979
• Principal, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth 1979-1989
• Vice-Chancellor, University of Wales 1985-87; CBE 1988.

Colleagues, members of the Malacological Society and past students of Zoology at Queen's University will be saddened to learn of the death of Gareth Owen who died after a short illness on May 4, 2002. Gareth was a long-standing member of the Malacological Society. He was brought up in a mining village in south Wales during the 1930s. The dearth of material advantages during these difficult times was offset by family and community support, combined with a matchless determination to succeed. Academic achievement and sporting prowess, inevitably rugby, in Pontypridd Boys' Grammar School were the basis for career and life at that time. Gareth then entered Cardiff University College, but for only a year, before joining the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. As a Flight-Lieutenant, he served in both Europe and South East Asia, returning to Cardiff in 1947 to complete his studies and graduate with a First in 1950. His initial academic appointment was in Glasgow University under the tutelage of the eminent marine biologist, Sir Maurice Yonge. Yonge introduced his young assistant lecturer to the study of molluscs, thus beginning a life-long fascination for their diversity, form and function. Gareth revealed immense talent for meticulous technical work and a lively inquiring scientific mind. He was also a marvellous communicator, engaging large and small audiences alike in his own enthusiasms. Appointment to a lectureship in Zoology at Glasgow followed in 1953, and a productive six years later and a substantial record of publications brought him a DSc and a research standing of international repute.

Gareth was appointed to the Chair in Zoology at Queen's in 1964, succeeding Professor Richard Gresson, who had presided over the gradual recovery of the Department in the aftermath and restrictions of wartime Belfast. In the reawakening world of the 1960s, Gareth's foresight and considerable managerial flair rapidly became apparent and it was clear that Queen's was fortunate in securing not only an outstanding research zoologist but an administrator whose personality and ready sense of humour ensured a remarkable degree of harmony and success.

His research made major, original and enduring contributions to malacology, centring largely on the anatomy and physiology of marine bivalves. His considerable skills as a microscopist, using both conventional tools and the then newly emerging high-resolution facility of electron microscopy, enabled him to probe both the intricacies of the relationships between the shell and hinge and the complexities of the feeding and digestive apparatus of bivalves. His broad understanding and clear exposition of these topics are patently evident in three chapters in "Physiology of Mollusca", edited by K. M. Wilbur and Gareth's mentor C.M. Yonge, a prelude to the major current published reviews on the Mollusca. While his work on functional fine structure may appear somewhat esoteric and dated these days, it has proved the test of time in forming the basis of our understanding of evolutionary relationships that is only now being challenged using molecular techniques.

Gareth served Queen's exceedingly well as an astute but very approachable Dean of the Faculty of Science (1969-72), and in 1974 was made Pro-Vice-Chancellor. These august positions did nothing to detract from his extraordinary charisma as a very humane and down-to-earth character, who would do whatever he could to help those in need of his sympathy and attention - and herein, perhaps, lay the warm affection and admiration universally accorded him during his 14 years at the University. He left Queen's and Northern Ireland in 1979 for his native Wales to become Principal, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and later (1985) Vice-Chancellor, University of Wales, being awarded in 1988 the deserved honour of CBE for his many services to academic life.

Gareth Owen was the personification of his non-conformist, working-class background in Wales. His distinguished career was a lifetime of success built on inherent intellect and effort. He was more than accomplished as a teacher, researcher and administrator and while for the latter he will perhaps be most remembered, his former colleagues in Zoology at Queen's will value his memory for his care and compassion, his zeal for his subject, and the energy and scientific achievements of the department he led so ably. He is survived by his wife Beti, three children and four grandchildren; our sympathy and love go to them all.

Ian Montgomery, Vivian Gotto,

Dai Roberts, David Halton