His Legacy Endures: Born to Serve, Dr. Ewing’s Impact Still is Evident in Avalon
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles highlighting the families of the Seven Mile Beach. The opportunity to be the first to tell their family story was auctioned off during the Festival of Trees Fundraiser last Thanksgiving weekend in Avalon. Jacquie Ewing was the high bidder and received a holiday wreath and the opportunity to tell her family’s story. We hope you enjoy this new series.
Margaret “Peg” and Dr. Agnew “Hank” Ewing at their house on 21st Street on their way out to dinner in 1965.
When one thinks of the phrase “a life well-lived,” perhaps there is no finer example of that than the life of Dr. Agnew Ross Ewing, who left a lasting impact not only in his hometown of West Grove, Pa., but in Avalon as well.
From the time he was very young, Ewing was devoted to helping people. That devotion was attributed to his mother, a birthright Quaker who taught him the value of service to the community and his fellow man.
His life’s early trajectory as a teacher and general practitioner took him to many far-away places, such as a boys’ school in Hawaii and a rural Canadian mission, all in the name of service. Eventually, however, he came back home to West Grove, where he opened his own medical practice and was elected mayor, a position he held for more than a decade.
It was while he was mayor that he realized the importance of providing recreational facilities for young people. Even as he entered his golden years, he remained an advocate for offering such opportunities in Avalon, where he and his wife, Margaret, vacationed and later built a home.
That desire to have a recreational facility in Avalon resulted in Ewing becoming the chairman of the Recreation Subcommittee created by then-Mayor Edgar Bell, and then developing the plans for the field on 8th Street.
A prolific writer and a passionate gardener, Ewing saw the demographic changing in Avalon. He became part of that change, according to his daughter, Jacqueline Ewing, who owns Armadillo, Ltd., the home decor shop on Dune Drive with her husband, John Bell.
And although it has been 20 years since his passing, Ewing is still remembered for his service to Avalon, as well as every community he was part of.
Dr. Agnew Ross Ewing’s family has Quaker roots in America that reach back before the Revolutionary War, and nearly a century in Chester County, where the small, rural borough of West Grove is located.
Born in West Grove in 1910 as the youngest of six children, Ewing graduated from Lafayette College in 1932, and took a position teaching chemistry for two years at the Iolani Boys School in Honolulu. It was during his time in Honolulu that he suffered a neck injury while surfing with his friend, five-time Olympic swimming medalist Duke Kahanamoku, better known as The Big Kahuna. The injury and its subsequent aftermath would prove to be the beginning of Ewing’s love affair with Avalon.
Upon graduation from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Ewing spent several years as a visiting physician in Labrador, Canada, through the Grenfell Mission, a philanthropic organization. Before World War II, year-round medical services were virtually nonexistent in Labrador and Newfoundland, where much of the population lived in poverty in remote conditions.
“In his younger years, he was a risk taker,” says Jacquie Ewing. “His family was cloistered, but he spread his wings. Going to the Grenfell Mission and being their doctor in Labrador, and also teaching in Honolulu, were examples of that. My father was spiritual, and such a giver, and Grenfell especially was a giveback, an adventure. He wrote about that time.”
During World War II, Ewing served as a major in the U.S. Army in the South Pacific. While in the Army, he met and married (after only one date) Margaret Helen Honegger, a nurse from Rye, N.Y.
Upon his honorable discharge, Ewing took over the West Grove practice of his uncle, Dr. William B. Ewing, and Margaret served as his office nurse. For nearly the next 50 years, Dr. Agnew R. Ewing was the epitome of the “country doctor,” and practiced all forms of medicine in the community, whether it be delivering a baby, pulling a tooth, or setting a broken arm.
“He kept a phone on the side of his bed,” Jacquie Ewing recalls. “Any time day or night, during snowstorms … he’d go to patients. He would even ride out on horseback during the 1950s and 1960s. He was a great listener, and a gentle human being. That’s what made him a great doctor. And there were never any appointments, he was never on the clock.
“Both of my parents were interesting for different reasons. They were a formidable team. They each had their own strengths.”
The 1950s proved to have a profound impact on Ewing’s life. Not only did he and Margaret welcome two daughters into the world – Jacquie and her younger sister Sheila – but they finally took their first two-week vacation, traveling to Avalon to stay at his uncle’s home on 21st Street. And it was during this time that Ewing had a brush with death.
The couple fell in love with Avalon and soon wanted to spend as much time as possible there, eventually building their own home on 21st Street. It became a place for Ewing to relax after a busy week tending to his practice, while for Margaret it ignited her imagination and gave her ideas about what she might want to do other than being his nurse.
“On Friday nights, we’d get in the car after he’d seen his last patient, and as we approached Avalon, he’d say it looked like diamonds on the shoreline,” Jacquie says.
Margaret would soon become involved with buying, selling, and renting real estate in Avalon, learning from the borough’s established realtors like George Puttergill, Dudley Newbold, Dave Kerr and Jack Fitzpatrick. Jacquie says her mother would run a “stable” of four to six rental properties at one time, and owned about 20 properties during her lifetime.
Weekends at the Ewing home were always filled with friends and fun, Jacquie recalls.
“Our house was never empty in Avalon,” she says. “It started on the Fourth of July, my parents’ anniversary.”
The house, which had five bedrooms, often would hold 14 adults, with children sleeping on cots in the screened-in garage. Jacquie said many of the guests were her father’s “doctor friends” and those from the Avon Grove Lions Club in Chester County. That taste of Avalon was enough to motivate several of them to buy property in the borough.
But complications from surgery related to the surfing injury Ewing suffered in Honolulu proved to be nearly fatal. His temperature soared to 106; he fell into a coma. With no known antibiotic to stop the infection, his own doctors packed him in ice for three days, hoping to save his life.
“He died during that operation,” Jacquie says. But he was resuscitated and chose to recuperate in Avalon; he thereafter credited the months spent by the sea for his recovery. “He said many times that he made it because he came to Avalon for his recuperation. Avalon saved his life. He felt he owed her, and he needed to give back to the Avalon community.”
During his four-month convalescence, Ewing began research on his book, “The History of Avalon,” a project he was encouraged to write by his close friend, Mayor Don Everingham. Everingham also helped Margaret launch her career in Seven Mile real estate.
Ewing also wrote “Gardening, From Ignorance to Bliss,” a book reflecting his passion for gardening. He tended an expansive garden in an empty lot he and Margaret owned behind the Avalon house, and grew so many fruits and vegetables that he gave much of it away.
“Dr. Ewing had one of the finest gardens I’d seen in my life,” said Avalon Borough Council president John McCorristin, a family friend of the Ewings. “He was using natural compost and grass clippings before it was fashionable. He was one of my mentors in that regard. If he was out in the yard, he always had time to talk about gardening.”
And recreation for children remained top of mind for Ewing, who always had ideas on how to make Avalon a better community. Through his friendships with councilmen and mayors, he put those ideas into motion. In later years, that included Avalon’s current mayor, Martin Pagliughi.
“Dr. Ewing and I had many conversations about the betterment of Avalon, specifically focused on recreational projects for children and adults,” Pagliughi says. “Dr. Ewing was very passionate about providing substantial recreational opportunities as he recognized that they presented health and wellness benefits for residents and visitors. I was always most appreciative of his letters and comments regarding recreation in Avalon, and most notably he provided plenty of solid guidance for the recreational complex that now exists between 8th Street and 12th Street. Dr. Ewing had significant influence on many aspects of recreational opportunities and his generous advice was well-received in Avalon, and remains impactful today.”
McCorristin recalled that Ewing also shared his interest in the Boy Scouts, as he was a major advocate for scouting.
“He provided me with all kinds of information and different projects that helped me out with the kids,” McCorristin says.
Once he retired to Avalon at age 70, a bit disillusioned with the state of modern medicine, Ewing enjoyed spending time with the many friends he had made, according to Jacquie.
“He would go to Sullivan’s every morning and sit with his friends at the counter – Jack Richardson, Bill Salvesen, Dudley Newbold, and Bob Golden, among others,” she said.
By that time, the Ewings had discovered Naples, Fla., and when Margaret died in 1989, he began spending winters there. In 2000, he passed away while in Naples at the age of 90.
“When Dad died, we found he had $60,000 owed to him by his patients,” Jacquie says. “He did a lot of bartering with patients who couldn’t pay – for sausage, homemade bread, things of that nature.”
In reflecting on her parents, Jacquie says: “My dad was so much fun. He had a great sense of humor and I adored him. We hung out together; we were pals. And my mom was someone to emulate. She was ahead of her time, a visionary.”
Above all, the communities Dr. Agnew Ross Ewing lived in, and the people he served, were the beneficiaries of his kindness and caring … truly a life well-lived.
