By Rebecca Goodman
The Cincinnati Enquirer

INDIAN HILL - As general manager for Procter & Gamble's operation in England in the 1950s, James M. Ewell took the formula for Tide detergent to Europe and oversaw its production there.

Back home in Cincinnati, he enhanced the quality of life in the region by serving on the boards of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, the Cincinnati Nature Center and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

As a member of the symphony board, Mr. Ewell was a principal in the construction of Riverbend Music Center 20 years ago.

Mr. Ewell died Thursday at Bethesda North Hospital. He developed pneumonia after a series of small strokes. The Indian Hill resident was 88.

He was born and grew up in Evanston, Ill., where he was a Sea Scout in his youth and flew a small plane all over downtown Chicago.

"There was a family friend who had a plane and who would take the family up for flights," said his son, Dana, of Anderson Township.

The friend would turn the controls over to a 14-year-old James Ewell, who had a ball flying up and down the lakeshore.

In 1934, he earned an associate's degree from the University of Arizona, where he was a member of the mounted cavalry ROTC.

Mr. Ewell went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a degree in chemical engineering in 1937.

After graduation, he took a job shoveling salt at P&G's Port Ivory Plant on Staten Island. "Being a young, strong fellow out of the university, he got the bottom job," said his son. But he moved up the ladder quickly.

Mr. Ewell was named superintendent of the St. Bernard plant in 1945.

In 1951 he moved his family to New Castle upon Tyne, England, to become general manager of Thomas Hedley & Company Ltd., P&G's European operation. He oversaw the production of Tide for the European market. "That was the first expansion outside of the United States for the brand," said his son.

Mr. Ewell joined the P&G board of directors in 1961, became vice president and group executive in 1973 and senior vice president in 1976. He retired in 1979.

Mr. Ewell served on the board of the Indian Hill Historical Society and was active in the operation of Indian Hill Church.

His first wife and high school sweetheart, Marjorie Watson Ewell, died in 1974. His second wife, Elizabeth Cleavland Ewell, died in 2001.

In addition to his son, Dana, survivors include two other sons, Bernard of Santa Fe, N.M, and Jonathan of Colorado Springs; a daughter, Deborah Ewell Currin of Hudson, Ohio; a sister, Diane Weiss of San Francisco, and six grandchildren.

Burial will be private at Indian Hill Church. A memorial service is pending.

Memorial donations are suggested to any of the above-mentioned organizations on whose boards Mr. Ewell served.

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com