Dr. I. Owen Horsfall, the son of Charles George Horsfall and Mary Brower Pettit, was born on May 20, 1885 in Oceanside, New York. He had a younger brother, Edward and a younger sister, Carol. After receiving his B.A. from the University of Utah in 1908, he embarked upon and LDS mission to Turkey and became the mission president of the branch at Aleppo, Asia Minor. After the Turkish mission was closed, he was transferred to the Athens, Greece mission were he remained for six months until traveling to Palestine and Egypt for three months. In June of 1910, he arrived in London England were he served several more months as secretary of the London conference until his return home in 1911. In December 1911, he was ordained a High Priest by James E. Talmage and set apart as first counselor to Bishop Albaroni H. Woolley. On March 9, 1913 he was ordained a Bishop by Francis M. Lyman and presided over the 9th ward.

Upon his return home in 1911, he became a member of the faculty of the LDS college in Salt Lake City were he was the head of the mathematics department and director of the junior college until 1927. He was awarded an M.A. by the University of Chicago in 1929 and became a member of the mathematics department at Cornell University. He received his doctorate of philosophy there in 1932. In 1933 he was appointed president of Snow College in Ephraim , Utah , leaving in 1936 to take over as director of the Extension Division and as a professor of mathematics at the University of Utah. I. Owen Horsfall was married to Nora Pendleton, daughter of Andrew Jackson Pendleton and Elizabeth Ann Malsen Cooper on July 31, 1913 in the LDS Salt Lake City temple. Owen and Nora had five children, Chester Owen, Bruce Pendleton (died in infancy), Beth Pendleton (died in infancy), Warren Pendleton, and Hope. I. Owen Horsfall died of natural causes November 15, 1971 in Ogden, Utah.