Honoring Jim Bob

Jim Bob McEwen has traveled all over the country putting on shows with his oxen and border collies. Everywhere he goes, he promotes Jay County.
So the Fourth of July committee decided it was time to say thank you.
The 77-year-old rural Dunkirk man will be honored during the county’s annual Independence Day celebration Thursday as the grand marshal of the Fourth of July Parade.
“It kind of surprised me. It’s quite an honor to do that,” said McEwen, busy as always while attending the swine show at last week’s Pennville Legion-Lions Fair. “I’m going to have to get me a red, white and blue shirt I guess.”
When Jim Waechter, a member of the Fourth of July committee, moved to Jay County 37 years ago, one of the first people he met and worked with was McEwen. Waechter has been impressed ever since with McEwen’s efforts to bring groups such as border collie competitors and the Chelsea House Orchestra to the area and to promote his home well beyond the borders of Jay County.
“He’s been an ambassador for Jay County all the years that I’ve known him,” said Waechter. “He does so much for the community, and a lot of it is stuff you don’t see. He deserves, I think, to be recognized for being who he is.”
McEwen insisted when he and his wife, Barb, sold his 80-acre farm on county road 200 South seven years ago that he would not slow down. That’s a promise he’s kept.
Although he’s long since given up raising and putting on shows with oxen, he’s still active with his dogs as he runs McEwen Border Collies.
In fact, as soon as he finishes the Fourth of July parade he’ll jump in his truck and take off to Van Wert, Ohio. There he’s scheduled to put on shows with his dogs at 3 and 6 p.m. Thursday.
McEwen, a former employee of Indiana Glass Co., is also an avid fan of Chelsea House Orchestra, a Chelsea, Mich.-based group he first saw in Detroit in 2000. He immediately inquired about booking the group, and has brought them to Jay County and the surrounding areas every year since.
He plans on making a trip later this year to North Carolina with Chelsea House, which is made up of high school students who play stringed instruments.
“They’re quite a group of kids,” McEwen said.
The father of two daughters and three step-sons, McEwen also enjoys watching his granddaughter, Kylie Kahlig, play basketball. She was a member of Fort Recovery High School’s 2011 state final four team, and now plays at the University of Northwestern Ohio.
McEwen, a man proud of his Scottish heritage, has served as a grand marshal before, for the Alma Highland Games he attends every year in Alma, Mich. But he’s looking forward to the opportunity to do so in Jay County.
He and Barb now live just outside of the county, about a mile south of Dunkirk on Ind. 167 in Delaware County. But that doesn’t change his passion for his home.
“It’s quite an honor,” said McEwen. “We moved out of Jay County, but our heart’s still in Jay County.”[[In-content Ad]]