Harrison Hollingsworth Owen Sr.

Harrison married Sherrill & I in their home in Monrovia, Liberia on March 2, 1968. We were grateful that he was able to marry us during our days when we were Peace Corps volunteers.

I'm a Canadian living in British Columbia and have spent many years working the seam between sustainable food systems, non-profits and government policy.

In 1990 I was a curious wannabe multi-party process facilitator and member of the Chinook Learning Center on Whidbey Island. I had read one of Harrison's books, Spirit, and then sought him out and took one of his early Open Space training workshops in Seattle. I have never forgotten his demonstration of how to hold and care for space and the people and issues that show up: in fact I was practising that just yesterday!

I also found Harrison fascinating regarding the places he had been and topics he had pursued - and how he wove ideas and practices together in an original way. He was constantly offering ideas and connections that had not occurred to me before.

Harrison was a beautiful, wise and inspiring servant leader. Much love to his family and friends and wide network of colleagues. I am so grateful I got to meet and learn from him.

My husband, Ira, and I met Harrison and Ethelyn when we were all parents at Bannockburn Cooperative Nursery School. We were fortunate enough to win a bid at a Bannockburn funding raising auction for a photography shoot for our children, Amy and David. Harrison generously spent an afternoon in our backyard taking numerous photos of our children, then developing and mounting several. He helped the children relax and have fun and produced by far the best photographs ever taken of them. I still enjoy these teriffic photographs every day.
I knew nothing of Harrison's varied career and many professional endeavors, but will always be grateful for the time he spent with us. I also remember Ethelyn as a thoughtful and altruistic person who volunteered her time to become President of the nursery school, or was it the P.T.A.

I never met Harrison but today going through old photos, I found 2 he had taken of my son, Alex at Bannockburn Nursery School where he was a classmate of Christy's. The photos are great and I am framing them.

Ethelyn, I send my condolences and still remember (If my memory serves me right.) the great fruit salad you brought to a League of Women Voters luncheon.

We still live in Cabin John and just today picked up my granddaughter at a house in Carderock on the street where you lived. My best wished, Janet Dence

I studied OS with Harrison in Maine in the '90s. Other than broadening my trust in whoever shows up, I learned the essential task as an organization consultant facilitating OS was to pick up the empty coffee cups scattered around the meeting space. That was how the facilitator supported the work taking place by those gathered around the issues that interested them.

I met Harrison at an Open Space Conference on Creativity and Business in the 1990´s in Sonoma County, CA. I really loved the process and his focus on Organizational Transformation. We did some work together in California and my husband and I became friends with his wife and youngest son Harrison Owen, Jr . We visited Ethelyn and Harrison in Maine and had a fabulous time.
I will always remember Harrison for his wisdom and humor and for his desire for peace in the world.
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to get to know and work with him. His presence and good works with live on.