McEwen's family legacy of learning becomes
planned gift for research fund

Irene McEwen (left) with her sisters during travel in Turkey.

Irene McEwen’s father taught his three daughters an appreciation for research and critical thinking. McEwen carried those lessons throughout her career as a physical therapist treating children with developmental disabilities and now is passing the torch to a new generation through a major planned gift to the University of Oklahoma Foundation.

McEwen, whose father was a chemical engineer, spent her early physical therapy career working with children in schools in Washington, Arizona and Australia. After earning her Ph.D., she was recruited from her native Seattle to teach in OU’s Department of Rehabilitation Sciences in 1989.

“I had never been to Oklahoma before,” McEwen laughed. “I remember landing at the airport and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I can see all the way to Kansas from here.’ But I loved the people and the opportunities I had.”

A talented instructor of physical and occupational therapy, McEwen went to work under department chair Marti Ferretti, who has since retired as a Regents Professor Emeritus and David Ross Boyd Professor.

“She was so supportive and a good mentor to new faculty members like me,” McEwen said. “My plan was to leave when I could return to the West Coast, but when I had the opportunity to go, I decided not to because I liked what I was doing at OU so much.”

She helped build the department’s master of science degree program, which in 2001 was the first online degree offered by the OU Health Sciences Center. “It was wonderful to interact with students from all over the country,” McEwen said.

She also played a key role in developing the College of Allied Health’s doctor of science in rehabilitation sciences program and became vice-chair of the department, as well as director of post-professional graduate studies.

McEwen served as co-director of the Oklahoma Assistive Technology Center and director of OU’s Lee M. Tolbert Center for Developmental Disabilities. Her research, which focused on mobility for children with severe developmental disabilities and the effects of physical therapy interventions, led to McEwen being named editor of two prestigious journals. In addition, she has received multiple national awards for teaching and research.

Though she retired in 2012 as a George Lynn Cross Research Professor Emeritus of Rehabilitation Sciences and returned home to Seattle, a part of McEwen’s heart has stayed with OU students. She established the McEwen Family Endowed Research Fund in Rehabilitation Sciences to honor her parents, John and Isabel McEwen, her sisters, niece and grand-nieces, with more than $60,000 in current gifts and the planned legacy gift.

The fund supports seed-grant research awards in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences and, McEwen believes, may pave the way for others’ new beginnings.

“I hope it will help stimulate student support and new faculty research,” she said. “That’s where my passion is.”