January 2020
In the 1960s, when FMCA was a fledgling association beset with growing pains, a small group of people devoted their time and talent to ensure its ultimate success. One of them was Charles “Charlie” Owens, L44.
“If he got involved, it was going to go. He was not going to let it fail,” said his wife of 68 years, Melva “Jean” Owens.
Mr. Owens, who served as FMCA’s third national president from 1967 to 1969, died October 5, 2019, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was 89.
Mr. Owens helped lay the legal groundwork that established FMCA as a viable association. He became one of FMCA’s first officers when he was elected a national director in 1963. He then served as national vice president in 1965 and 1966.
At FMCA’s first annual gathering, held in July 1964 at Fort Ticonderoga in New York, Mr. Owens led the first convention “seminar” — a discussion about citizen’s band radio.
During his stint as president, Mr. Owens announced plans to provide FMCA members motorhome insurance at a reduced rate, and by 1969, an insurance plan was available in 36 states. Also while president, he was editor-in-chief of Family Motor Coaching magazine.
He founded the Ohio-Indiana-Kentucky chapter, and he helped form the Midwest Coachmen, Illini Coachmen, and Hoosier Cruisers.
Mr. Owens worked closely with Ken Scott, FMCA’s first executive director. They were good friends, and their families traveled together. “They were two gung-ho guys,” Mrs. Owens said. “They didn’t know when to quit.”
In 1965, two years after FMCA was founded, the association’s paperwork and supplies were moved to Cincinnati, where Mr. Scott ran the association from his home. The Owens family lived in northern Indiana at the time. “(Charlie) took the end tables from our bedroom and used them as files for FMCA,” his wife said. “The dining room table was full of FMCA stuff.”
Mrs. Owens said her husband’s outgoing personality — “he never saw a stranger” — dovetailed with his devotion to FMCA. If he was running an errand and saw a motorhome without an FMCA emblem, he would flag it down, ask the owners to join, take their dues money, and hand them a magazine.
Mr. Owens earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in education from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. In his career as a business manager for public schools, Mr. Owens had a month off each summer, which allowed him and his family to travel extensively throughout the United States and Canada. Through their travels, the couple “made lots and lots of friends,” Mrs. Owens said.
Mrs. Owens said that over the years, she and her husband owned eight motorhomes. Mr. Owens converted four buses himself, including a Flxible, the coach brand that adorns the FMCA emblem. “People would stand in line to see what he had done to his motorhome,” she said. “Charlie enjoyed telling people how he did this and how he did that.”
Mr. Owens is survived by his wife; a son and a daughter; a sister; six grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
Memorial contributions can be made to East 91st Christian Church, 6049 E. 91st St., Indianapolis, IN 46250.