Joseph Neww Ewing Jr.

1925 - 2016

Joseph Neff Ewing, Jr, of Newtown Square, died peacefully on Friday, April 8 after living with MDS and leukemia for three years. He was 90. Son of Joseph Neff Ewing and Anne Ashton Ewing, he was born on November 10, 1925 in Valley Forge, PA. He was a graduate of Haverford School, Princeton University, and University of Pennsylvania Law School. Joe served in the US Marine Corps at the end of World War II in Okinawa, Japan. In 1951 he married Margaret Converse Howe, and together they had three daughters Margaret Ewing Lloyd, Anne Ashton Ewing, and Elizabeth Ewing Peifer. Joe practiced law for 46 years at Saul, Ewing, Remick & Saul, in a broad range of areas including health law; eminent domain; railroad law; law concerning oil and gas production and distribution; arbitration; general civil litigation; and municipal planning, building and zoning. Believing that all politics is local, he served on the planning commission, zoning board, and as supervisor of Willistown Township for 22 years, and later on the zoning hearing board of East Goshen Township. In other public service, he was active on numerous boards: Bryn Mawr Hospital, four Medical Specialties boards, United Fund, Princeton Club, Pickering Hunt, Eagle Farms Hunt, Devon Horse Show, Paoli Presbyterian Church, Historic Sugartown, Dunwoody Village, Ewing Family Association; he was a founding member of Waynesborough Country Club. A lifelong athlete, Joe played football and threw the hammer in his youth and officiated at the Penn Relays for many years. He was passionate about spending time out of doors: playing tennis, sailing, skiing, gardening, fox hunting; when he turned 75 he became scuba certified, taking his last dive at the age of 87. Indoors, he was an avid reader, puzzler, putterer, fixer, and model railroad enthusiast. He owned one of the earliest commercially available calculators and was an early adopter and devoted user of the personal computer. With a quick wit, a playful sense of humor, and a somewhat gruff exterior, Joe was the consummate family man, vacationing and traveling with immediate and extended family and hosting gatherings of the clan. He is survived by his wife and daughters, their spouses, Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, Lawrence Henry McCauley, Alan Mayer Peifer, and former son-in-law R. McAllister Lloyd III; grandchildren Robert McAllister Lloyd IV, Margaret Howe Lloyd, Joseph Ewing Lloyd, Samuel Ashton McCauley, William Henry Ewing McCauley, Emma Dease Peifer, Janet Forrester Peifer; great grandchildren Brooke Arvida Lloyd, Robert McAllister Lloyd; siblings Anne Ewing Zettek, Thomas Ashton Ewing, William Henszey Ewing; 18 nieces and nephews and many cousins, in-laws, and greats. We will celebrate his life Saturday, April 16, at 10:30 a.m. at Saint Francis-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church, 689 Sugartown Road, Malvern, PA. Interment to follow at Washington Memorial Chapel Churchyard, Valley Forge, PA. In lieu of flowers, contributions in his name may be made to: Bryn Mawr Hospital, Attn: Development, 130 S Bryn Mawr Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 or Island Community Medical Services, 15 Medical Center Loop, Vinalhaven, ME 04853 or by donating blood at your local Red Cross Donation Center.