J.S. Ewing was born in a small town in Alberta, Canada, where his father was a bank manager, but he traveled to more than a hundred countries before he died January 29, according to the Montreal Gazette.

After graduating from Bishops University in 1937, he began traveling overseas with the Canadian army service corps as a supply officer. He returned in 1945 and earned an M.B.A. at Harvard Business School. A year later, he entered the doctoral program. His career teaching international marketing generated many memorable experiences, including the time he accepted an invitation from the Shah of Iran to visit Tehran in 1978, only to find himself forced to leave in the middle of the night at the start of the Iranian Revolution.

He was a sailor with the Clipper Club of America, a member of the Knights of the Bath in Finland, and he author a history of the Standard Oil Company. He loved writing letters, and enjoyed correspondence with people as varied as former Egyptian President Nasser and Agatha Christie. Ewing was living in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, at the time of his death.