Commander Robert S. “Steve” Owen, USN (Retired) of Virginia Beach, loving husband and father, passed away on Thursday, February 23, 2023,  at the age of 87.

Born on February 12, 1936, in Muskogee, Oklahoma to Audrey Leroy and Geraldine Bibb Owen, Steve studied at Boston College, the University of Oklahoma, and St. Mary’s Seminary in Houston before joining the US Navy in 1956. He earned his master’s degree in mathematics from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California in 1972.

Steve was a naval aviator and a veteran of the Vietnam War. He flew over 150 missions across three combat tours as an A-6 Intruder attack pilot. His decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross, which he received for striking a vital, heavily defended target in North Vietnam despite intense fire that damaged his aircraft. He was also awarded eighteen Air Medals for meritorious achievement in air combat. He later commanded Attack Squadron 52 (VA-52), the Knightriders. After retiring from the navy in 1978, Steve worked in Hampton Roads for more than three decades as an operations analyst and an executive for several defense companies.

Steve is survived by Lynette Cowan Vance, his devoted and loving wife of 27 years, his children Paul (Kathy), Peter (Elena), Mary, Stephanie Woodworth (Richard), and Brenden, his stepdaughter Janie Vance (Jack), his thirteen grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and his extended family of cousins and nephews. Steve was predeceased by his parents, his stepfather Frank Kubala, and his sister Audrey Jean Parman.

Known to his children as “The World’s Greatest Naval Aviator” (a title he bestowed upon himself) and to his grandchildren as “The Most Interesting Man in the World,” Steve was a brilliant mathematician and an Artificial Intelligence pioneer. He worked as a sheet metal worker, a saxophone player in a five piece dance band, a farmhand bucking bales of hay (the hardest job he ever held), a disc jockey for an AM country and western station (“Willie the Hillbilly”), a carbide plant technician, a gas station attendant, and a surveyor for a highway department. While his plan to become a Catholic priest did not quite work out (for which his family is eternally grateful), Steve carried his deep faith throughout his life. He had a lifelong love of music and played both the saxophone and the clarinet. His beautiful singing voice comforted his children when they were young. More recently, he would burst into song when his words failed him. Most of all, Steve loved his family and was loved by them.

A Memorial Mass will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, at Catholic Church of St. Mark in Virginia Beach. In lieu of flowers, the family invites charitable contributions to the Salvation Army.