Michael J. Owens was the inventor of a glass bottle making machine that led to the modern O-I Glass, Inc. Worked with Edward Drummond Libbey in the east and moved to Findlay to work in the glass plants in the early 1890s. Owens started developing the process of making glass bottles that revolutionized the industry while in Findlay. He later moved to Toledo and started the Owens Bottle Company. He and Libbey also founded the Libbey Owens Ford Company currently owned by Nippon Sheet Glass, that produces flat glass for the automotive and building products industries both for original equipment manufacturers and for replacement use. Some people in Findlay had invested in Owens company and the investments returned a good yield as the business took off.
Owens Community College based in Rossford, Ohio with a campus in Findlay is named after him.
(b. 1859 d. 1923: inventor, industrialist)
