Georgia Sharon Ewing

Georgia Ewing succumbed on April 28, 2024 after a lengthy struggle with breast cancer. She was 81. Georgia was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 31, 1943, to George and Irene Gutten. The family moved to Miami, Florida, during her grade school years and she completed high school in Miami. After high school, she attended University of Miami where she took pre-medical courses and worked as a technician for Dr. George Paff in the Anatomy Department of the Medical School. She met her future husband in the anatomy lab. She went on to receive her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Miami and continued work in the Anatomy Department as a graduate student, working on the effects of pesticides on organ culture. She also began to take medical school classes with the plan to get a Masters of Science degree while taking classes for a M. D. degree. In June 1965, she married Richard Ewing, a graduate student in the Cell and Molecular Biology program at University of Miami. By the time he graduated in 1968, they had two children, Sean and Wayne, and she decided to drop her classes to take care of the children. The family moved to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, where Richard had a postdoctoral fellowship. They moved again to Wood’s Hole, Massachusetts for a summer research program, then to a second postdoctoral position at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. A third move across the country brought the family to Oregon State University in 1971. When her husband got a permanent position with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, she searched and found a house in south Corvallis to raise the kids. She acted as a den mother for the cub scouts in south Corvallis, worked briefly in the flower section of Winco, and spent several years working as a volunteer in the court system. During this time the whole family enjoyed fishing and hunting trips from the Rogue River in southern Oregon to the Blue Mountains in northeastern Oregon. She was an avid gardener, elected secretary of the Albany Metro Garden Club, and completed the Master Gardener’s Program of the Oregon State Extension Service. She also loved pets and cared for three dogs and nine cats over the years. When the kids went off to college, she entered academia again. She enrolled as a graduate student to take courses in biochemistry and molecular biology. She also worked briefly with a neurosurgeon at Good Samaritan Hospital. To obtain an official preceptorship at the hospital, however, she was required to have a Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccination. She received one from the Benton County Health Department and had a severe autoimmune response to it, such that she could barely walk. Once more, the desired M.D. degree eluded her. After the bad reaction to the vaccination, she began to collect more and more autoimmune responses, such as celiac disease, alpha-gal reactions to meat, and multiple chemical sensitivity. In 2009, she discovered a lump in her breast but avoided doctors because of the painful responses to chemicals. Finally, in April 2024, the breast cancer won. She is survived by her husband, Richard Ewing, her son Wayne Ewing, and her last cat, Pumpkin, all living in Corvallis, and her sister, Gail Gutten, living in Miami, Florida.

Georgia Sharon Ewing

May 31, 1943 - April 28, 2024