Passion for photos kept Woodbridge history alive Local man's photo collection provided historic record for town BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer Betsy and Robert James McEwen WOODBRIDGE - On the second floor of a Church Street residence is a room filled with the rich memories of a man who was passionate about the place he called home. Over a dozen photo albums line the brown wooden bookshelves containing volumes and volumes of thousands of photographs that Robert James McEwen, who was born in Rahway but was a lifelong resident of Woodbridge, collected over the years. "My father would take an old photograph, for example a class photograph of Woodbridge High School from the 1920s, and he would cover the 50 states and track down each and every one in that picture," said Kathleen McEwen-Sosnovich. "He was just interested in pictures and got to know the people in them." However, Betsy, his wife of 54 years, said among all the photographs her husband collected, one particular photograph was his greatest accomplishment: a photograph of his six grandchildren posing in a pyramid formation in front of the open ocean. The photograph was placed on a throw blanket, which lay on their living room couch. Robert McEwen, Woodbridge, was an avid history buff. "He was just a picture person," she said. Surrounded by family and friends, McEwen passed away from pneumonia at JFK Medical Center in Edison on Sept. 10 at the age of 82. McEwen's small hobby of collecting photographs throughout his life led to his co-authoring three books in the "Images of America - Woodbridge" series with Virginia Bergen Troeger in the past five years. "He was always interested in history ... a history buff," said Kathleen. "There wasn't a battlefield we missed." McEwen's hobby evolved from collecting photographs to befriending the generation before his. "He would listen to their stories," said Kathleen. The books became part of the core curriculum in the Woodbridge Township School District in September 2005, allowing students to learn about their hometown, founded 338 years ago. McEwen was quoted in the July 13, 2005, issue of the Woodbridge Sentinel, expressing his approval of the idea. "It's about time they did a little Woodbridge history in the schools," he said. "Even when I was in school, we didn't learn any Woodbridge history." He also published 13 historical calendars featuring pictures of the past and present. "For one of his calendars, he did photographs of what places looked like years ago and what places look like now," said Kathleen. "I remember being dragged to places, taking photos with my camera." McEwen graduated from Woodbridge High School in 1942 and then served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a pilot during World War II. Then he attended Rutgers University, where he met Betsy. "We met freshman year in Economics 101," said Betsy, as she thought about her first impression of her husband. "Obviously, I was impressed. He was a nice boy. We dated for four years through school 1948-1952] and then we got married." McEwen received degrees in accounting and mechanical engineering from Rutgers University and the Newark College. He worked as a quality-control engineer for approximately 20 years at ITT and Bendix before becoming an electronics teacher for the Franklin Board of Education. McEwen retired in 1991. "He kept his days always busy, like an eight-hour work day," said Kathleen. "If nothing was lined up for the day, he would create something to do. He had to be busy all the time." When McEwen first retired, he tracked his family's lineage and discovered that he was the third generation of his family to live in Woodbridge. There are now fourth and fifth generations of McEwens in the township. McEwen was a Republican Committee member, the treasurer of the Woodbridge Historical Society for many years, a member of Woodbridge River Watch, an elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Woodbridge since 1972 and superintendent of the church cemetery, a member of the township billiards club, and a member of the American Legion. McEwen's "business" focused on the history of Woodbridge. "He always was collecting things, whether it be spoons, crystal cut glass and dishes from his parents Thora and Joseph McEwen, or stamps and silver coins," said Kathleen. Before the strip mall was put up on Main Street across the street from town hall, Kathleen said, she remembers her father digging for old doorknobs. "He found creative things to do with those doorknobs - for example, using it as a bottom of a planter," she said. Besides history, McEwen had a love for music. "He played the clarinet and saxophone," said Kathleen. "He was in his own dance band in high school and continued playing in the Woodbridge Elks Lodge 2116 band." Before McEwen passed away, he was working on a fourth book about the clay industry, which is a big part in the history of Woodbridge, and was editing a manuscript. Barbara Wyatt remembers her friend Bob as a loyal and good friend. "My husband, George, had been close friends with Bob since they were in their mid-teens," said Wyatt. "Bob was so well versed in Woodbridge history. He knew more history about Woodbridge than anyone else. If someone called me and I didn't know the answer, I knew Bob would. He's definitely a big loss to the community." The Rev. Robert Boyar of the First Presbyterian Church of Woodbridge agreed. "Even before I got to the church, I was told that if I had any questions on the history of the church, Bob would be the person to go to," said Boyar, who has been with the church for two years. "He knows everything, and even if he didn't know something, he would look it up for you." Boyar added that McEwen, as the head of the Heritage Committee at the church, had a dream of opening up the first and only historical museum in Woodbridge and making areas of the township into a historical district for tourists to come visit Woodbridge. Another place McEwen spent his time was the old, large cemetery between Trinity Episcopal Church and the First Presbyterian Church of Woodbridge on Rahway Avenue. McEwen was superintendent of the cemetery, which is owned by the First Presbyterian Church of Woodbridge. "He knew everybody that was buried there," said Kathleen. "He would drag me out there with my camera. He not only cared about the cemetery, but he spent hours repairing and preserving gravestones that lost their faces." Repairing and preserving gravestones was like a crossword puzzle. "He would dig up all the pieces and put them back together," said Kathleen. One of McEwen's goals was to see the cemetery placed on the National Register of Historic Places, which he and the members of the Heritage Committee have worked on for the past few years. "[Boyar] came and told Bob in the hospital that they were in the final stage of considering the cemetery to be on the National Register of Historic Places at the end of October," said Betsy. The thought brought Betsy to tears. "He was happy," she said. McEwen's funeral took place Sept. 15 at the Costello-Greiner Funeral Home on Green Street, and a service was held at the First Presbyterian Church of Woodbridge. He was buried in the place that he spent so much time caring for and preserving - the cemetery between Trinity Episcopal Church and the First Presbyterian Church of Woodbridge. McEwen is survived by his wife of 54 years, Betsy; his three daughters, Kathleen McEwen-Sosnovich and her husband, Tony, of Woodbridge, Kristine King and her husband, Greg, of Powell, Ohio, and Tara McEwen of Rahway; six grandchildren, Nicholas, Kelly, Zachary, Jenny, Cassie, and Grady; a brother, Joseph McEwen; and two sisters, Kathryn McEwen and Jeannette Wolff. Memorial contributions may be made to the First Presbyterian Church of Woodbridge Cemetery Fund.