His name is inscribed on a plaque in the State Department lobby honoring government officials killed under heroic circumstances.

Robert Owen's name first surfaced in print in a September 1983 Esquire magazine article in which author Christopher Buckley reviewed the traumas of Americans who tried but failed to get drafted for Vietnam. The segment on Owen said that he "worshipped" his brother and that Dwight's death "hit him very hard."

Six years later Owen was a freshman at Stanford, watching television in his dormitory, when the news showed the first freed prisoners of war, the article said.

"When Jeremiah Denton, who'd been a prisoner of the North Vietnamese for seven years, stepped to the microphone and said 'God bless America, ' Owen suddenly found tears running down his cheeks. Not long afterward, the Marines happened to be on campus recruiting, " according to the article.

"Owen had not awakened with the idea of signing up, but when he read an ad in that morning's student newspaper saying 'Don't Be Good Little Nazis: Stop the Marine Recruiting, ' he went down for an interview, " the article said.

Owen flunked the physical because of a high-school knee injury he sustained playing lacrosse.

Buckley said Owen decided then that "if and when the test ever comes, I'm going to get my red badge of courage, or die trying."

Owen was born Oct. 21, 1953, in Providence, R.I., the youngest of three sons in a well-to-do family. He attended the prestigious and private Moses Brown School in Providence, then a Quaker school for boys, graduating in 1971. Owen was captain of the football team and co-captain of the lacrosse club.

Moses Brown headmaster David Burnham said Owen had a strong commitment to service.

A DESIRE TO HELP

"He had this tremendous desire to make the world better, " Burnham said. "He had a very strong desire to help, to clean up politics, clean up corruption and whatever."

After Moses Brown, Owen went on to Stanford University where he earned a degree in political science.

In 1980, Owen put some of his ideals into practice in the same part of the world where his brother had served. He went to Thailand with the International Rescue Committee to help Cambodian refugees.

But Owen cut short his tour when word came that his father was dying. He returned to the United States to take care of his father.

Back home, Owen once more tried to enlist in the military, but the knee problem kept him out again. Acquaintances say he also applied to the CIA, but apparently was not successful. CIA spokeswoman Kathy Pherson declined comment.

In 1982, Owen finally went to work for the government. From March 15, 1982, to November of the following year, he served as legislative aide to Sen. Dan Quayle, R-Ind., handling Asian issues.

In 1983, Owen joined the Washington public relations firm of Gray and Co., and began his involvement with the contras.

According to a contra official, Owen contacted the rebels in late 1983, offering to lobby Congress on contra aid.

At first, the contras weren't impressed. Owen did not speak Spanish and did not seem to know Central America.

But Owen's involvement gradually grew. Buckalew said Owen met occasionally with Americans who were already involved with the contras. Others involved with the contras, including two jailed soldiers of fortune interviewed in Costa Rica last year by Herald staff writer Juan Tamayo, said Owen had been present in contra camps when weapons were delivered.