HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

First Tenured Woman Professor At Law School, E. Owens, Dies

Elisabeth Ann Owens, Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Law Emerita, died Nov. 15 in Falmouth Hospital after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease. She was 79.

"The death of Elisabeth Owens is a great loss for the School," said Dean Robert C. Clark. "She was a pioneer, both in her scholarship that helped develop the field of international tax law, and in her appointment as the first tenured woman professor at Harvard Law School."

Owens came to the Law School in 1955 and became research assistant in law in 1956, working with Professor Stanley Surrey, the first director of the International Tax Program (ITP). Her work consisted of three components: her own research and writing; editing numerous publications on tax issues in and among foreign countries; and administrative duties as ITP's research director.

She became research associate in law and editor of publications in the ITP in 1961, lecturer on law and research associate in law in 1964, lecturer on international tax law and research director of the ITP in 1965, and lecturer in law and senior research associate in law in 1967.

In 1972 she became professor of law, the first tenured woman professor at the School. She became the Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Law in 1976. She took emerita status in 1981.

Her courses included International Aspects of Income Taxation. In 1970-71, she developed and began teaching a course on water law with special attention to problems of water pollution abatement.

Her first book, The Foreign Tax Credit (ITP, 1961), was recognized as a major research achievement, organizing international tax law into a structured, reasoned whole. Her other books include the two-volume The Indirect Credit, which she co-authored with Gerald Ball (ITP 1975 and 1979).

She graduated from Smith College in 1940, summa cum laude, with a degree in economics. She went on to graduate study in that field at the University of Chicago. During and immediately following World War II, she worked as an economist for the federal government in Washington, D.C., first for the Office of Price Administration and later at the State Department, UNRRA, and the Bureau of the Budget.

In 1948, she left Washington for New Haven to attend Yale Law School. In 1951, she completed her LL.B. and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar. She then practiced at Hill, Barlow, Goodale & Adams in Boston.

She is survived by her sisters, Margaret Harris of Falmouth and Mary Bemis of Randolph; her brothers, Cornelius Owens of West Roxbury and Graham Owens of Yarmouthport; and 15 nieces and nephews, including her nieces, Mary and Charlotte Harris, with whom she made her home in Falmouth.

No service will be held at this time. Memorial contributions may be made to the Falmouth Public Library, Falmouth, Mass.