Owen C. McEwen

McEwen, Owen C., 87, died Wednesday, February 8, 2012. Service will be held 11:00 a.m., Monday, February 13 at St. Stephens Episcopal Church. Owen was born in Wichita, Kansas, and attended Wichita schools, including Wichita College where he was a member of Phi Sigma Fraternity, later known as Phi Delta Theta. Owen left college to join the service during World War II. He was deployed with the last detachment of the Cavalry before it was disbanded and spent 3 years in service in the China-Burma-India Theatre. He simultaneously held rank as a Staff Sergeant in the U. S. Cavalry and a Colonel in the Chinese Army and was responsible for helping to open the famous Burma Road. Upon his discharge from the Army he returned to Steffen Dairy Foods Co., where he became assistant sales manager in 1948, secretary in 1949, vice president in 1960 and served as president from 1964 until 1984. He was a past director of the International Association of Ice Cream Manufacturers and director and past president of the National Independent Dairies Association. In addition to his career in the dairy industry, he had numerous other business ventures in Kansas and across the US. Owen had varied real estate interests, being secretary of Prairie Village, Inc., owner and developer of Prairie Village Shopping Center and developer and owner of McEwen Estates Additions 1 through 8 in Wichita. He was a founder and former director of KAKE Radio and TV and founding director of the Law Construction Co. Owen also was a director of the Union National Bank. He was one of the founders of Collegiate School and a founding member of St. Stephens Episcopal Church. Owen also led an active civic life. He was a past president and director of Quivira Council, Boy Scouts of America and was a recipient of the Silver Beaver Award. Owen had also served as past president and director of Junior Achievement of Wichita and the Wichita Historical Museum Association. He was a past president of the Wichita Jaycees and received the Distinguished Service Award in 1955. He was a past president of the United Way of Wichita and Sedgwick County and a former member of the Board of Directors. He was past president of the Wichita YMCA and served as an honorary member of the Board of Directors. He was elected to the YMCA Hall of Fame in 2003 and was currently a member of the YMCA Board of Trustees. Owen served for thirteen years on the Board of Directors of St. Joseph Hospital in Wichita. He was past chairman of the Kansas Chapter, Young Presidents Organization. Owen was also a Mason, receiving his fifty year pin in 1997, a Shriner and a member of Rotary since 1951 and was a Paul Harris Fellow. In addition to all his business successes and his philanthropic endeavors, his first love was for all types of animals, especially horses and mules. Owen brought the first Arabian horse to Kansas in the 1930s. He quickly established Jameel Arabian Farm and began an extensive breeding program that traced through the world famous Crabbet line back to the Bedouin tribes in the Arabian desert. His farm was very successful and at its height, numbered well over 200 head. At one point, he had the oldest continually bred strand of Arabians in the United States. In the 1980s, the Jameel stallion, Aalreif, was one of the top three sires with the highest number of winning progeny in the U.S. Many of the Arabians receiving the International Arabian Cutting Horse Associations “Top Cutting Horse of the Year” award were owned or bred by Jameel. Jameel Arabians and their offspring continue to be consistent winners at Halter, English and Western Pleasure. Owen was a past president and director of the Kansas Arabian Horse Club and also the International Arabian Horse Association. He served as secretary-treasurer of the International Arabian Cutting Horse Association; served as a governing member of the Arabian Horse Registry of America, Inc., a vice president of the Arabian Horse Trust and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Arabian Horse Owners Foundation. He was a 44 year rider and member of the Roundup Riders of the Rockies; a 26 year rider and member of the Colorado Mule Riders and a past president and director of that organization. Owen was an aircraft pilot and loved to fly. He soloed in a V Tail Bonanza on February 16, 1960. He held single and multiple engine and instrument ratings. He is preceded in death by parents, first wife, Pat (Zoller) McEwen, and 2 daughters. Survivors: sister, Ellen McEwen-Enoch of Denver, CO; wife, Carol Catherine McEwen; children, John (Nancy), Drew (Erin), Clay (Traci), Brian (Mary)-Denver, CO, Kevin (Jane), Mark Danner (Elaine), Laura Carol Hill and Leah Garcia (Ron); many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, memorials have been established with Rotary Club of East Wichita, 14311 E. Killarney Circle, Wichita, KS, 67230 and the Boy Scouts of America, 1555 E. 2nd, Wichita, KS, 67214. Downing Lahey Mortuary East.