J. Riis Owre |Faculty Highlights | College of Arts and Sciences
Sibling Scholars
Generations of students benefited from the Owre brothers’ expertise, guidance, and dedication.
By Jordan Rogers
The College of Arts & Sciences shares a fascinating connection with Jacob Riis, the Danish American journalist famous for his photography exposing the squalid conditions of New York City tenements at the turn of the 20th century. His two grandsons, who were scions of the Owres, a prominent Minneapolis family, pursued academic careers at the fledgling University in its early years.
Each a legend in his own right, brothers Jacob Riis Owre and Oscar Theodore Owre carved out niches in the College as they realized their academic objectives in Spanish and ornithology, respectively.
Like nearly half of the University’s faculty at the time, the brothers’ story runs through their military service during the country’s World War II wartime efforts.
J. Riis Owre
J. Riis Owre at the 1958 dedication ceremony for the Antonio Ferré building, which initially housed the Graduate School. Photo credit: University of Miami Archives
Dean Owre, as he was known for much of his four-decade career at the University, joined the College’s Spanish faculty in 1935, reaching the rank of full professor in 1939. For several years, he directed the groundbreaking Hispanic American Institute, the center of scholarship related to Latin America and the Caribbean at the University.
J. Riis Owre served as the dean of the College for one academic year (1942–43), before taking a leave of absence to join the war effort. Commissioned as a lieutenant (junior grade) in the U.S. Navy, he spent two years overseeing the educational guidance of servicemen in Cairo, Egypt, work that earned him a Legion of Merit award.
After the war, he returned to his teaching and research duties at the University, while still maintaining a high level of involvement in administrative affairs. He held another deanship—dean of administration—before a long stint as dean of the Graduate School, where his contributions fueled the Graduate School’s exponential post-war growth. He presided over the University’s first doctoral degree, conferred in 1961, before spending four years as associate dean of faculties. In 1968, he returned to the Spanish faculty, teaching full-time until his retirement in 1974.
