Dr. Donald Owens Ph.D., D.D., M.A., B.Th., A.B. | |
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General Superintendent emeritus | |
Church | Church of the Nazarene |
Other post(s) | General Superintendent 2nd President, MANC 1st President, APNTS Professor, NTS Professor, BNC 1st President, KNU |
Orders | |
Ordination | 1952[1] |
Personal details | |
Born | Marionville, Missouri, U.S. | September 12, 1926
Denomination | Church of the Nazarene |
Parents | Emery Owens Mary Elizabeth Russell Owens |
Spouse | Adeline Lois Preuss Owens |
Profession | minister, missionary, educator, administrator, anthropologist |
Alma mater | Bethany-Peniel College |
Donald Dean Owens (born September 12, 1926) is an American general superintendent emeritus in the Church of the Nazarene, and also a retired ordained minister, missionary, professor, and seminary and college president.[2] Owens is the founding president of the forerunner of Korea Nazarene University (then in Seoul, Korea), and Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary in Taytay, Rizal, Philippines (1983–1984), and served as the pioneer missionary for the Church of the Nazarene in the Republic of Korea (1954–1966), and as a missionary for four years in the Philippines (1981–1985), where he was the first Regional Director of both the Asia Region (1981–1985) and the South Pacific Region (1981–1983) of the Church of the Nazarene. Owens was the 2nd President of MidAmerica Nazarene College in Olathe, Kansas, for 4 years from 1985.[3] In June 1989 Owens was elected the 28th General Superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene, and after being re-elected in 1993, served until his retirement in June 1997.
Owens is the author of four books: Challenge in Korea (1957), Church Behind the Bamboo Curtain (1973), Revival Fires in Korea (1977), and Sing Ye Islands (1979); and several scholarly articles. Owens was a professor at Korea Nazarene Theological College, Bethany Nazarene College in Bethany, Oklahoma, and at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. Owens pastored Nazarene churches in Fairbury, Nebraska (1952–1954) and Bethany, Oklahoma, where he was the pioneer pastor of the Lake Overholser Church (1968–1969).