Ewen C. Dingwall Century 21 Exposition photograph collection, 1962

Ewen Dingwall was justifiably called the mastermind of the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. Born in 1913, Dingwall graduated from the University of Washington in 1939. He spent much of his early career working for "good government" groups such as the Seattle Municipal League and the Washington Research Council. He also served as assistant to Seattle Mayor William Devin. When the state legislature created Century 21 Exposition, Inc. in 1957, city and state officials picked Dingwall to head the project. He was appointed Vice-President and Executive Director of the Century 21 Exposition and Executive Director of the Seattle Civic Center Advisory Board.

The World's Fair was originally the brain-child of Seattle businessmen and civic leaders who wanted to revitalize downtown and provide it with amenities to lure shoppers away from growing suburban shopping complexes. Dingwall and his planners thus quickly settled on the Warren neighborhood, just outside of downtown, as the site of the fair. Arts activists, realizing that buildings used for the exposition could later be turned into playhouses and museums, soon joined downtown businessmen in promoting the fair.

Dingwall and other planners initially thought that the Century 21 Exposition would have a "Festival of the West" theme, but the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik in late 1957 changed that. The start of the space race, combined with the fact that America had not had a World's Fair in over 20 years, led federal officials to use the Seattle fair to highlight America's scientific and technical achievements. Dingwall quickly realized that a scientific, futuristic theme would draw larger crowds and attract more federal support. Thus the Century 21 Exposition became "America's Space Age World's Fair." Senator Warren Magnuson promoted the project in Congress and won $10 million appropriation to build the centerpiece of the exposition, the U.S. Science Exhibit, which became the Pacific Science Center after the fair. The U.S. Science Exhibit and most other exhibits portrayed science and technology as creative endeavors which made life better, promoted understanding between nations, and led toward world peace. (Ironically, this optimistic vision took a severe jolt the day after the fair closed, when President Kennedy blockaded Cuba and announced that the Soviets had placed atomic missiles there.) Dingwall convinced most of the participating states, nations, and corporations to send exhibits which related to the scientific theme. The fair planners also decided to build two "futuristic" structures that would later become Seattle landmarks: the Space Needle and the Monorail.

Although the 1962 Seattle World's Fair was small by the standards of the earlier World's Fairs, occupying only 76 acres and drawing 9.6 million visitors, it was very successful. Unlike most World's Fairs, the Seattle exposition produced a profit. Furthermore, the fair provided a substantial boost to the local economy that extended beyond 1962. More tourists visited Seattle and more businesses opened regional offices in the city in the years immediately after the fair. The remodeling of the fairgrounds also gave the city one of the largest civic centers in the nation, the Seattle Center. While the Seattle Center did not help downtown stores compete with suburban retailers in the long run, it still provided many benefits. The remodeled fairgrounds included three playhouses, an opera house, and an exhibit hall. Additionally, the Seattle Center Coliseum was crucial to Seattle's successful bid to obtain its first major-league sports team, the SuperSonics.

Dingwall moved to Washington, DC in 1964 and worked as a consultant for a number of other expositions. He returned to Seattle and renewed his ties in the area that he had helped build when he became temporary director of the Pacific Science Center for most of 1977. In 1982, when the Seattle Center went almost $1 million in debt, the City Council fired Seattle Center Director Jack Fearey and picked Dingwall to replace him. Dingwall improved the Center's financial situation but ran into criticism for hiring Disney to make plans to turn the Seattle Center into a theme park; he resigned in 1988.