It is with deepest regret that we advise of the passing of Dr John Alexander Ewen, one of our MCOBA 2015 Hall of Fame Inductees, who passed away on Tuesday, August 8, 2017, in Florida, U.S.A.
He was born into a Munro family, as his father and three uncles, as well as his older brother, Bryan Ewen (now deceased) attended Munro before him, and his father taught mathematics at Munro for a short while.
He received the Exxon Chemical outstanding Patent award in 1996, and in 2004, he was awarded the honorary Doctor of Science from the University of the West Indies and also received the Munro and Dickenson Trust Award of Excellence.
In 2002, at 57, he was a guest of United States President George W. Bush at the White House, where he was awarded the American National Medal of Technology, which is the highest possible award in that field, and comparable to a Nobel Prize in chemistry, for which he was nominated in 1993. The citation credits him for his discoveries and inventions in the field of metallocene catalysts, which revolutionized and spurred the growth of the entire industry and enhanced American leadership in the field.
The Executive of the MCOBA expresses sincere condolences to the Ewen family at this time of bereavement.