Kenneth and Marion Ewer Scholarship
KENNETH & MARION EWER
J. Kenneth Ewer enjoyed a long career in merchandising, and he lived most of his life in Pocatello. He was born on March 13, 1905 in Evanston, Wyoming, to John and Alberta Ashton Ewer. He was an all-state basketball player in his junior and senior years in high school at Evanston, where he graduated in 1923. He married Marion Way on September 26, 1928, in Ogden, Utah. She died on September 21, 1987.
Mr. Ewer began working in marketing at age 11, delivering circulars for a movie house, and completed his career in the employment of Steve Rhoads, Jr. Mr. Rhoads has been quoted as saying, “He’s the best salesman I ever met.”
Ewer attributed his success in merchandising to the help of Mr. John Rennie, a canny Scot who apprenticed in Aberdeen, Scotland, and was hired to come from New York City to the West by the late Thomas Blyth of the Blyth and Fargo stores. Rennie soon took a liking to Ewer. “He gave me a free course in merchandising that could not be bought in any business school at the time,” Ewer said.
Rennie challenged Ewer’s arithmetic and taught him rapid mental calculation in the days when there were no adding machines. He also taught him the fine points of figuring costs and setting prices.
“Rennie was a wonderful man,” Ewer said. "He quizzed me daily until I could rattle off answers to 12 times 19, 16 times 14, and ‘If an item costs $2 per dozen, what would be our selling price?’
“He taught me to observe. Once he gave me a dime and told me to go down the street and buy a package of pins. When I said, ’We have pins,” he countered with, ‘Did I ask you if we had pins?’ On my return he asked, ‘What was in the window of the drug store you passed down the street?’ I was sent back to observe.
“When I was sent to the warehouse three blocks away to get several sacks of flour, he asked, ‘How many sacks were left?’ I was sent back, and soon I caught on there were things other than my immediate job to keep in mind.”
After being married for nine years, the Ewers wanted to buy an automobile. They decided to buy the car on the installment plan, and mentioned it to Mr. Rennie. Rennie pointed out that in addition to the monthly payment of $35 they must add $3 a month for garage space, and about $15 a month for interest, insurance, and other expenses. “You’ll have to change your saving habits,” Rennie told Ewer. “Why not save until you have enough to pay cash?”
The message got across, the car purchase was delayed, and the Ewers never again planned an installment purchase except once, when ice delivery service was suspended and they needed to buy a refrigerator in which to keep their baby’s food.
Ewer first came to Pocatello at age 40 in 1945 and was a very successful manager of Fargo’s Department Store. He retired in 1956, and traveled with his wife around the west. They soon became homesick for Pocatello, and returned to stay.
Kenneth Ewer later came out of retirement to work part-time as manager with Itex, then joined Rhoads, Inc., in 1967, where he worked part-time as manager. He selected his own hours, had plenty of leisure for golf, and thoroughly enjoyed his marketing career until his death on November 30, 1990.