Born December 20, 1906 in Palisades, Colorado. His family moved to California where he spent most of his childhood. In 1923 at age 16, he graduated high school as valedictorian in Brawley, California. He entered Caltech at age 16 receiving a three-year Blacker Scholarship. In 1926 at age 19, he won a Caltech Junior Travel Prize along with Carl Anderson for a six-month trip to Europe. They studied in Munich, Germany, climbed Monte Rosa in Switzerland, and toured Europe together. In 1927 at age 20, Fred received his BS in Chemistry from Caltech. From 1927 to 1930, he worked on his PhD in Chemistry at Caltech. As part of his academic research, he studied crystal structure analysis with Linus Pauling. He also was an instructor for freshman chemistry and scientific German.

In 1929, he married Judith Bland and had two children, Bland Ewing (born 1931) and Carmen Ewing (born 1938). In 1930, anticipating the expense of a coming child, he left Caltech to work in industry. Here is his resume. In 1934, he took a seven month leave of absense from work and returned to Caltech to complete his thesis and oral exams. In 1935, he received his PhD in Chemistry minoring in Physics and Math. In 1940, he and Judith separated. In 1945 as part of the war effort, he went to Germany to dismantle the V2 rockets with Theodore von Karman. He was made an Honorary Colonel during the war. While overseas, he had a heart attack and recovered in a hospital in England. He received a get-well letter from his friend Linus Pauling.

In 1953, he reconciled with his wife Judith. In 1964, he was admitted to the hospital after being diagnosed with Huntington's disease. In March 1968, he and Judith divorced. He died from complications of his disease in July 1969.

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