He was ready to retire at the end of last year but City College principal Peter Kaua asked him to stay on for another year and Mary-Ann was committed to continuing at high school so now they are retiring together.
"We feel very lucky to be able to do that," said Mary-Ann.
"It's worked out well for us and we know couples where one partner needs to keep working but we can look forward to enjoying our retirement together."
The couple plan to travel to Canada next year and Mary-Ann said she looked forward to seeing her husband's native country in the spring and summer because previous visits had always been in winter.
"We're a skiing family and it has been good to go for the winter season but I look forward to seeing it when it's not covered in snow."
The couple's two children, Freya and Alec, will be studying in New Zealand while their parents are overseas.
Alec is part-way through his BSc at Victoria University and Doug said Freya has been working in Dover, England but planned to come home and begin a degree in Marine Biology at Waikato University.
Both the Ewings say they have enjoyed working at their respective schools and will miss teaching and the camaraderie they have shared with colleagues. Doug has high praise for Peter Kaua and the relationships he has built with students, staff and families.
"It's a safe learning place - Peter has done a lot of work with school families and students working with teachers in whanau classes has built up a lot of trust."
Mary-Ann has worked at Wanganui High School for 15 years, starting work part-time when her children were young and said she has enjoyed seeing students flourish.
"We have achieved a good number of scholarship passes and it is enjoyable to work with the really bright students but I have had great satisfaction from seeing achievement in students who don't find it so easy."
Mary-Ann has organised simulated United Nations conferences with Whanganui high schools since 2003 and said it has provided opportunity for academically inclined students to mingle with young people from other schools.
The Ewings have been part of a cluster group in Whanganui, studying the iwi history of the upper, middle and lower Whanganui Awa and they have written unit standards for the high school curriculum.
The group travelled to Ranana Marae last week to meet with iwi and discuss the work they have been doing on the 1864 battle of Moutua Island.
"People have different perspectives on historical events and it is important to be respectful and build trust," said Mary-Ann.
"We had a wonderful meeting at Ranana and the young people who were there know Moutua Island as a place where they learned to swim.
"They were very interested to learn about the historic battle and how it affected life on the awa at the time."
The research began when Pita Sharples was Associate Minister of Education and funding was allocated to regional groups for the purpose of documenting local Maori history.
"We will continue working with the group," said Doug. "We were allocated $13,000 for this year and we have used only $6000 so the Ministry has allocated the remainder for further research."
Wanganui City College students have been acknowledged for their achievements at the school with the Te Toa o te Wiki (Warrior of the Week) system introduced by Doug and his farewell gift from the school is a taiaha of his own carved by Werahiko Craven.
The Ewings say they are looking forward to spending their retirement in Whanganui and have many things they want to do.
Mary-Ann is planning to spend time researching her own family history, something she's wanted to do for a while.
