Dr. Arthur Eugene Ewing was born near Cartersville, Georgia, April 26, 1855, his parents being Whitley Thomas and Hannah Jane (Pettingill) Ewing. The father was also a practicing physician and in his college work had received the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Medicine. He provided his son with liberal educational advantages, the latter attending private schools in Gadsden, Alabama, from 1862 until 1874, when he entered Dartmouth College, where he studied for four years and received the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1878. He then took up the profession of teaching and was principal of the public school at Gadsden, Alabama, through the succeeding year. He regarded this, however, mereiy as an initial step to other professional labor, for during his teaching period he devoted his leisure time to the study of law in the office of Aiken & Martin and was admitted to the bar at Gadsden in 1879. However, he had not yet taken up the line which was to become his life work and in 1880 entered the St. Louis Medical College, from which he was graduated with the M. D. degree in 1883. In 1912 he received the M. A. degree from Washington University in the department of zoology.
During his medical course he was assistant to Drs. John T. Hodgen and Henry H. Mudd of St. Louis in 1881 and from 1882 until 1886 held a similar position with Drs. John Green and M. H. Post. He afterward went abroad and did post-graduate work in ophthalmology and general pathology at the Koenigliche Christian-Albrechts University at Kiel, Germany, from 1886 to 1888. Following his return to America he again became associated with Drs. Green and Post, a relationship that existed during the lives of his associates-more than twenty years.
While serving as assistant to Dr. Green, who was professor of ophthalmology at the St. Louis Medical College, he was instrumental in founding the eye clinic at the O’Fallon dispensary of the St. Louis Medical College, which later merged with the eye clinic of the Missouri Medical College and the eye clinic of the St. Louis Children’s Hospital into the present ophthalmic clinic of Washington University. For a number of years he was in charge of the eye clinic of St. Luke’s Hospital until it was transferred in 1895 to the eye clinic of Washington University. In 1895 he was appointed clinical lecturer of ophthalmology in the medical department of Washington University and clinical professor of ophthalmology in 1902, a position which he held until 1921, when he was honored with the title of professor emeritus of ophthalmology by the University. In his connection with the University it was his purpose to found an ophthalmic department which should be ably represented in every branch of ophthalmology. This he has lived to see accomplished. Also he has been active in encouraging the growth of the medical department of the University from a semiprivate medical college to a great university medical institution with all the connections necessary to a finished medical education. For many years he served on the staff of the Deaconess Home and Hospital. Resigning from this position he became a member of the staff of St. Luke’s Hospital, a position which he still holds. He is also a member of the staff of the Barnard Skin and Cancer Hospital, the St. Louis Children’s Hospital and the Barnes Hospital. He is a. member of the St. Louis Academy of Science, the St. Louis Medical Society, the St. Louis Ophthalmic Society, the American Ophthalmological Society, the American Medical Association, the Southern Medical Association, the Academy of Ophthalmology, Otology and Laryngology, the Phi Beta Pi and the Sigma Xi.
Dr. Ewing was married in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Josephine Willard, a daughter of Charles Abner and Harriet Frances Willard. Their family consists of two children: Margaret Frances and Charlotte Eugenia.
Dr. Ewing is an able physician of international prominence. He is widely known as an educator and his medical investigations have secured for him an honorable place in medical literature.