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With partner, Lecky Haller, McEwan went onto win a silver medal in C-2 slalom at the 1987 World Championships in Bourg St.-Maurice, France, win the overall C-2 World Cup title in 1988, and place fourth with Haller at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He later teamed up with his son Devin to compete in the 2000s. Now he's moved on to the greata river in the sky.

"Cancer just sucks," says former U.S. Slalom Teammate Jon Lugbill, who won five world championships in C-1. "There are few people I've known that lived a healthier lifestyle than Jamie. He excised regularly, ate a very healthy diet, never smoked, no drugs, and he lived a relatively stress free life.

When it comes to McEwan's contributions to slalom, Lugbill hardly holds back.

"Jamie's bronze medal performance at the 1972 Olympics provided legitimacy to whitewater slalom in the United States," says Lugbill, the only paddler to have ever appeared on a Wheaties box. "Paddling was all of a sudden an acceptable endeavor for people of all backgrounds and not just crazy people. A whole cadre of young paddlers including myself benefited from this because our parents were then willing to drive us to all of those rivers, lakes and ponds. I know my Olympic dreams started right then in 1972."

"Jamie was one of the truly great people I've met in my life because he did so much for others and with such ease," he adds. "He was always smiling, being positive and seeing the potential for great things from those he met.

"I will always remember a 1977 training camp up in Canada before the World Championships. He gathered the six C-1's training there and said that we needed our own rules for practice. He said C-1 paddlers would finish every run they start and not snit or quit, we would do the recommended number of runs on every course set and we would show up ready to go at the start of every workout. These were very simple rules that to this day remind me that showing up, working hard and never giving up are the keys to success in almost any endeavor you take part in."

McEwan began kayaking at his family's Valley Mill Camp before earning a degree in literature from Yale University in 1975. He married noted children's author and illustrator, Sandra Boynton, shortly later and ventured into the world of children's book publishing himself, writing such works as The Heart of Cool and Willy the Scrub.
In 1998, McEwan and his brother Tom were members of a first descent expedition down Tibet's Tsangpo Gorge, in which fellow U.S. slalom teammate Doug Gordon died.

"Jamie was very competitive, but had a healthy view of competition," says former U.S. Slalom Team member Bruce Lessels, who owns Zoar Outdoor Center in Charlemont, Mass., and was friends with McEwan for more than 30 years. "One of the things he loved most about it was the friendships he formed as a result of competing. He always shared tips by the side of the race course and many of his competitors were his best friends.

Lessels also notes his more academic and good-natured side. "He was curious and intelligent - fun to debate and full of interesting ideas and perspectives on politics, sports and philosophy," says Lessels, who competed against him in the mid and late '80s. "He was very dedicated to his family and one of the most warm, generous people I've known. He didn't live according to many conventions - he made his own way and lived an original life."

 

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