His 49-year journey as a Moore County leader follows a pattern of progress from the middle of the 20th century to this day.
People know him as a former mayor of Southern Pines and a former county manager. They know him as a leader for school consolidation, development of the community college, builder of public facilities and a voice for cooperation.
But few know that he was schooled in England and Switzerland, holds a degree from Princeton University and served as a German translator for Naval Intelligence during World War II.
Ewing, an 84-year-old resident of Soggy Bottom Lane, retires this year after serving almost 25 years on the Moore County Board of Commissioners. A former journalist, he is also a former economic developer and former industrial purchasing specialist. And he is a Republican activist, a role he has no intention of relinquishing.
Ewing says that county government has improved greatly since he was first elected to the board of commissioners and since the days when he was a newspaper publisher/editor trying to cover county government.
“When I first came, it was a good old boys’ club that ran things,” Ewing says. “No longer are the good old boys running things.”
The big change for the good, he says, came with the introduction of professionalism in the operation of local government. In particular, this means the county manager system.
“The county manager form of government is not tainted with party politics,” he says. “It’s done more to improve the quality of local government than anything.”
Ewing also pays tribute to the North Carolina Institute of Government, which he credits with bringing about substantial improvement in local government operations across the state.
“The Institute has done one heck of a job in providing instruction and leadership for local government officials,” he says. “It has so improved the professionalism of elected officials. Let’s face it, it’s a very complicated business. We’ve had excellent advice.”
Ewing has attended the institute in more than one capacity, as a manager, economic developer and commissioner. Changes in law make it more difficult for elected officials to do just anything they want to do, he adds — even when they think it’s best for the community.
“We can’t get away with anything,” he says with a chuckle.
Man of Many Talents
When Ewing relaxes at his home on wooded acreage in the Eureka community, he enjoys privacy and the nearness of unblemished nature.
The 23-acre wooded tract has two ponds, used for fishing and irrigation purposes. The rustic home of Robert S. and Katherine Ewing is reached by unpaved Soggy Bottom Lane. Wildflowers cling to the edges of fields and woods and occasionally share space with cultivated blooms and a vegetable garden.
The Ewings bought the property about 30 years ago.
“I came out here to look at the property, and while I was here, I saw a mother fox with two kits,” he says. “That sold me on the property, and I made an offer.”
The Ewings had not been married long at the time. It was a second marriage for both, and they saw the wisdom of setting up a new nest. Four of the eight children between them were still at home, and the new circumstances worked very well.
Bob Ewing’s odyssey in Moore County began in 1955, when he moved here to handle purchasing for Robbins Mills. He had previously worked with DuPont, and Robbins was one of DuPont’s customers. An official with Robbins Mills persuaded him to move to North Carolina for a new and better position with another company. Bill Saunders was in charge of the Robbins plant at that time.
Saunders was a Democrat and Ewing a Republican, but their relationship was a warm one, and they worked well together.
Ewing and his first wife, Ann, settled in a home on Valley Road in Southern Pines.
Things worked out well for a while, but then there was an industrial merger and Robbins Mills became Ameritron. There was no place in the new operation for Bob Ewing.
“By then, we had six kids and I wasn’t about to move back to New York,” Ewing recalls.
That’s when he bought the old Moore County News, a weekly newspaper with headquarters in Carthage. This was in the late 1950s.
“I’d never had a day of journalism in my life, but with the help of Woodrow, we managed to make a go of it,” he says.
Woodrow Wilhoit, a native Moore Countian, was the newspaper’s only reporter at the time. Wilhoit later retired from that newspaper and came to work for The Pilot, where he served as Carthage bureau chief almost until his death a few years ago.
The Ewings started the Village Printers in Pinehurst, which became Ann Ewing’s responsibility. The Moore County News also published the Robbins Reporter.
New Adventures
In running the newspaper, Ewing was the personification of the “editorial we.” He sold ads, collected and wrote news, wrote editorials and edited the newspaper. He wrote a column, “As One Editor Sees It.”
Ewing paid several women 10 cents an inch to write reports on community news.
His interest in running for county commissioner developed from scheduling conflicts with his task of soliciting advertisements for the newspaper and his role as a reporter. The commissioners met on Monday morning, the same time that he went out to gather ads. It was hard to do both, and it was hard to extract the board’s doings without being there in person. Ewing decided to run for the board as a means of being on the “inside” to learn the news.
Several years later, however, Ewing was offered a job in the administration of Gov. Jim Holshouser, the first Republican to serve as North Carolina governor in the 20th century. Ewing went to Raleigh to head the Division of Community Assistance, an arm of the department known then simply as Natural Resources. He was in charge of planning, recreation, law and order and economic development.
The call to public service remained intense, and before he served on the county board, Ewing was elected to the Southern Pines Town Council. At that time, the voters elected council members, who, in turn, chose the mayor. The council picked him as mayor.
This experience introduced him to a new set of adventures. The U.S. Army conducted maneuvers in the Southern Pines area on a regular basis. On one occasion, the maneuvers took the form of a Civil War conflict. The “Confederate” army moved in and “captured” the town.
Ewing, as mayor, was herded up along with other community leaders and hauled off to “jail” by the Rebels. Joining Ewing in “jail” was the late Katharine Boyd, then publisher of The Pilot. The Union army “liberated” the town shortly thereafter, and they all pulled down the Rebel flag and raised the United States flag.
As mayor, Ewing was appointed to the board of what was known then as Moore Memorial Hospital. His service as mayor did not last long, but this was the beginning of a long and satisfying relationship in the hospital administration.
The Political Itch
Throughout this period, Ewing was getting the political itch.
He ran for state House one time, but his adversary was the very popular Cliff Blue, a Democrat in a county controlled at that time by Democrats. Blue, who served as speaker of the state House, was also publisher of The Sandhills Citizen in Aberdeen.
Ewing also lost the first time he ran for county commissioner.
But in 1966 he and fellow Republican Floyd Cole broke the party barrier to become the first two Republicans to win seats on the Moore County Board of Commissioners.
Their win was a slim one. Cole won by less than one vote in each precinct. Ewing did a little bit better, but not much.
Ewing served until 1973, when he resigned to accept the appointment in the Holshouser administration. That’s when he sold the newspaper to Rockingham publisher Neal Cadieu.
When he returned to Moore County, he served as the county’s economic developer, retiring in 1984. He served a short period as county manager, during the time that Tony Parker and Dr. Charlie Phillips were serving on the county board. In 1984, Ewing accepted appointment to fill the vacancy left by Phillips’ resignation.
“Being manager is tough duty when you have a split board,” Ewing says.
Life in Moore County was changing rapidly in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and Ewing did not hesitate to take a leadership role where need existed.
It was a time when schools were consolidating to accommodate the Brown vs Board of Education desegregation ruling.
Community College Leader
At the same time, North Carolina was initiating a new system of community colleges.
Ewing worked with Saunders for passage of a $4 million bond issue, $3 million to consolidate the schools and build three new high schools and $1 million to get Sandhills Community College started.
“We got the referendum passed,” Ewing says. “Bill Saunders and I geed and hawed, telling people we could have the bonds without raising taxes.”
When the vote was tallied, the measure had passed 7-1.
Cooperating with Saunders, despite their political differences, was helpful to Ewing.
“Bill Saunders could walk on water in those days,” Ewing says. “He taught me a good lesson.”
With this victory behind him, Ewing accepted appointment by the Board of Education to the college board of trustees.
The founding board needed to learn how to administer a community college. Not only were the trustees new to college administration, but the operation of community colleges was also a whole new concept for the state of North Carolina.
The trustees traveled to Florida to study that state’s community college system. Ewing, J.C. Robbins of Aberdeen and a man from Raeford are the only members who made the trip and are still living.
In Florida, they learned that the college must accommodate “those new-fangled things called computers” and to provide two parking spaces per student.
Back in Moore County, they hired an architect, who designed a campus incorporating traditional styles of the Sandhills area, including open courtyards and mansard roofing.
Excitement grew with erection of new high schools. Ewing remembers that then Gov. Terry Sanford was the speaker for the Union Pines groundbreaking ceremony.
It was the same day that John Glenn orbited the earth as part of the nation’s early space program. Ewing adds a footnote here: A bridesmaid in his first marriage later became the bride of astronaut Alan Shepard.
‘Stuck Our Necks Out’
By the 1970s, Moore County was under the pressure of growth and of changes in government and society. The old courthouse, centered in downtown Carthage, was feeling the strain, and it was clear that larger, more modern quarters were needed.
Democrat Sid Taylor chaired the board of commissioners in those days. Everyone recognized the need for more and better quarters for the courts and everyone who worked with the courts.
Revenue-sharing was a big boon from the federal government during the 1960s, but those years came to a halt in the 1970s.
Ewing joined John M. Currie and Joseph R. Monroe Jr. in turning an idea into reality. They formed a nonprofit corporation, borrowed $1,750,000 and built the Moore County Courts Facility. Local governments cannot legally do this type of borrowing today, but it was perfectly legal then.
“We never saw a cent of that money,” Ewing says. “Sid got the bills, sent the bills to the bank and the bank paid them. We never even had 50 cents to go out and buy lunch for ourselves.”
The corporation, Pioneer Service Company Inc., borrowed the money on the faith of the county’s solvency. They paid off the debt with payments from the county.
“We stuck our necks out, John Currie, Joe Monroe and myself,” Ewing says. “Others helped, but the idea came from three men, two Democrats and one Republican. But we all knew that something had to be done.”
Opened in 1979, the Courts Facility was dedicated to Estelle T. Wicker, now deceased, who served many years as county finance officer. A plaque in the lobby lists Currie as president of the corporation and Ewing and Monroe as members.
Although the design was not popular with everyone, the Courts Facility has continued to meet a growing need. At that time, the building had an almost empty basement, now filled by the Sheriff’s Department and spillover from main floor offices of the clerk of court. The building, 25 years later, is growing crowded.
Such a borrowing scheme won’t happen again.
“The Local Government Commission now frowns on that kind of thing,” Ewing says.
Nevertheless, he says it’s been fun seeing how the county has met the needs of growing pains through the years.
He remembers construction of the Currie Building, the library, the jail, the Register of Deeds building, the Agriculture Center, the Health Center, the Elections Building, and now the Carriage Oaks facility for the Department of Social Services.
His name, in one capacity or another, is on plaques in every one of those buildings.
“We’ve come a long way in terms of buildings,” he says. “A lot of that is due to things that are thrust at us from on high. It’s been good that we can concentrate most of these services in Carthage.”
Youth in Europe
Ewing’s life story began Dec. 3, 1919, with his birth in Wilmington, Del.
In 1927, DuPont sent his father to England to head the company’s operations in Europe, where his main job was to maintain contact with chemical companies.
After attending school in England a few years, Ewing enrolled in a school in the French part of Switzerland. He studied there two years, then moved to a school in the German part of Switzerland for the next two years.
He chuckles as he recalls his experience with international roommates, including a German Jew, a German Nazi and an Italian Fascist.
Ewing remembers going to see the Graf Zeppelin, an early dirigible. He saw his first Brown Shirts and members of the Hitler youth group.
How did he get along with the Nazi and the Fascist? Just fine. They were all young, and politics did not dominate their attention at the time. They were all mostly interested in the things that young people found engrossing at that time. From that experience, he learned his first lessons in diplomacy.
Then it was time to come back to the States.
Ewing attended Andover and Princeton, where he majored in German and graduated in 1941 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. His graduation came despite an embarrassing situation at Andover, where he flunked, of all things, American history.
“I was brought up in Europe,” he explains. By the time he reached Princeton, Ewing was doing better at American history.
Interpreter in Navy
Today, looking at a mellow Bob Ewing, it’s hard to realize just how European his upbringing was.
In England, he played soccer, rugby and cricket. These skills followed him to Princeton, where he captained the rugby team. He has a framed photograph of himself, as captain of the Princeton rugby team, shaking hands with the duchess of Windsor, her husband hovering behind his wife.
Pearl Harbor was still ahead when he graduated in 1941, but hostilities were worsening in Europe and military service seemed inevitable.
Ewing had already applied for a position with Naval Intelligence, and the Navy was happy to have a man fluent in German. His service included PT boat duty. He served as interpreter for interrogation of seven German survivors whose submarine sank off the coast of North Carolina.
During his military service, Ewing had married the former Ann Mason of Kennett Square, Pa. They became parents of six children, all girls.
After his discharge in 1945, Ewing went to work for DuPont. He enjoyed the work but soon realized the limits on promotion opportunities. That’s when he accepted the challenge tossed at him by Robbins Mills.
Ewing was happy in Southern Pines, happy with his employment, his service in the community and especially his family. But Ann Ewing died suddenly of a heart attack, leaving him with two children still at home.
The spark returned two years later, when he married Katherine Dellert, a fellow member of Brownson Memorial Presbyterian Church. She had two children from a previous marriage, both still at home.
When they met, he was an elder and an active member of the Session, and both were choir members. They continue to sing in the choir, Katherine as alto, Bob as bass. Katherine Ewing has made her own mark on the community, especially for her profoundly melodious voice that has made her a popular soloist.
Plenty Left to Do
Ewing is a 45-year member of Sandhills Kiwanis Club and is a past recipient of the club’s Builders Cup for outstanding community leadership.
He has chaired the Moore County Republican Party more than once and is one of the five Republicans who held the first GOP meeting in the county. Of those five, he is the sole remaining member.
In all these years, Ewing has not lost interest in the hospital, which has grown beyond all imagination since the 1950s.
Ewing chaired the hospital board when it launched a $3 million capital campaign, a massive effort in those days.
A member of the North Carolina Hospital Association, Ewing received an honorary degree from the American College of Hospital Administrators in 1983. For that honor, he went to Houston, Texas, where he delivered his acceptance in Latin.
Ewing was the first trustee chair of the Carolinas Hospital Board and was a trustee of the American Hospital Association when he initiated a magazine for hospital trustees across the nation. He has chaired the AHA trustee association and now serves on the Patient Care Committee.
In all his years as a commissioner, Ewing has been active with the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, an important lobbying group with the legislature. He has served on several association committees and received the Outstanding County Commissioner Award in 1987 and 1988.
What will Bob Ewing do when his term on the board expires in December?
He remains active at the hospital, in Kiwanis, the Republican Party and, of course, his church. He still enjoys gardening. The nest is empty except for Bob and Katherine Ewing, but there are numerous grandchildren. He is using his multiple skills to write a column, “As One Republican Sees It,” for the Moore County Republican Men’s Club newsletter.
“Isn’t that enough?” he says.
