Daniel J. Evans

Early life and education

Evans was born in Seattle to Lester Evans and the former Irma Alice Ide,

As a young man, Evans was an Eagle Scout, and served as a staff member and Hike Master at Camp Parsons as part of the Chief Seattle Council, a well known Boy Scout camp in Washington. As an adult, he was awarded the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America in 1973.

After high school, Evans served in the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946. He first entered the V-12 Navy College Training Program, and was stationed at the University of Washington (UW), but was transferred eight months later to a Reserve Officers' Training Corps program at the University of California, Berkeley. He did not see combat; he was deployed to the Pacific Ocean shortly after the end of World War II, as a commissioned ensign on a succession of aircraft carriers, before returning to UW in 1946.

Evans graduated from the University of Washington with degrees in civil engineering (Bachelor of Science, 1948; Master of Science, 1949). In 2007, the UW later gave him the distinction of Alumnus Summa Laude Dignitatus, the highest distinction the university confers on its graduates. He returned to the United States Navy, where he served from 1951 to 1953 before working as a structural engineer from 1953 to 1956; in the latter capacity, he helped draw up the plans for the (now-former) Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Political career

Evans served in the Washington State House of Representatives from 1957 to 1965 before being elected governor.

Despite being a Republican and a self-styled conservative, Evans became known for his administration's liberal policies on environmentalism (he founded the country's first state-level Washington State Department of Ecology, which became Nixon's blueprint for the United States Environmental Protection Agency) and strong support of the state's higher education system, including founding Washington's system of Washington Community and Technical Colleges. In addition, he signed a bill to legalize abortion in the first four months of a pregnancy and fought unsuccessfully for a state income tax, two additional liberal positions.

Governor of Washington (1965–1977)

Evans announced his campaign for governor in December 1963. He was elected in 1964, defeating incumbent Democratic governor Albert Rosellini, and served until 1977, one of three to be elected to three terms, after Arthur B. Langlie and later Jay Inslee, in Washington state history. A 1981 University of Michigan study named him one of the ten outstanding American governors of the 20th century. He declined to run for a fourth term in 1976. Jay Inslee joined both Langlie and Evans, becoming the third Washington governor to serve three terms with his re-election victory in 2020.{{cite news | access-date = April 24, 2011 Serial killer Ted Bundy served as one of hundreds of campaign volunteers for Evans. Despite rumors, Evans never met Bundy. During the 1972 campaign, Bundy followed Evans's Democratic opponent around the state, tape recording his speeches, and reporting back to a campaign aide. A minor scandal later followed when the Democrats found out about Bundy, who had been posing as a college student.

From 1977 to 1983, Evans served as the second president of Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington,

Evans was named as a potential running mate for Richard Nixon in 1968, but he declined to be considered. Gerald Ford considered nominating him for the vice presidency in 1974, after he succeeded Nixon mid-term, and as a possible running mate for the 1976 election.

United States Senate (1983–1989)

In 1983, Governor of Washington John Spellman appointed Evans to the United States Senate, to fill a seat left vacant by the death of long-time U.S. Senate member Henry M. Jackson. Evans won a special election later that year against United States House of Representatives member Mike Lowry, and filled the remainder of Jackson's unexpired term, retiring from politics after the 1988 elections. He was unhappy during his tenure in the Senate, writing in a 1988 column in The New York Times Magazine that "debate has come to consist of set speeches read before a largely empty chamber" and adding that he felt demoralized by "bickering and protracted paralysis".

Evans voted in favor of the Passage of Martin Luther King Jr. Day establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday, and the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 (as well as to override President of the United States Ronald Reagan's veto). Evans voted in favor of the Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States, which failed when the U.S. Senate rejected Robert Bork's nomination.

Later life and death

After leaving the Senate in 1989, Evans founded his own consulting firm, Daniel J. Evans Associates. His autobiography was published in 2022. On January 26, 2024, his wife of 64 years, Nancy Ann Evans died at age 90 from breast cancer.

Evans died at his home in Seattle on September 20, 2024 at age 98. He was the last living former U.S. senator born in the 1920s.

Wilderness preservation efforts

Evans was a Boy Scout whose early experiences hiking in the Olympic Mountains nurtured a life-long love of wilderness. Evans supported Congress' creation of North Cascades National Park in 1968. As governor, he persuaded U.S. President Gerald Ford to sign a 1976 legislation creating the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, when the United States Forest Service was urging a veto. Evans sponsored the million-acre Washington Park Wilderness Act as a U.S. senator, and legislation creating the national scenic area in the Columbia River Gorge. In 1989, Evans co-founded the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition, with U.S. House of Representatives member Mike Lowry. In 2017, Olympic Wilderness at Olympic National Park was renamed to Daniel J. Evans Wilderness, in honor of Evans.

Personal life

Evans married the former Nancy Ann Bell, a native of Spokane, Washington, on June 6, 1959 at Westminster United Church of Christ in the Cliff/Cannon neighborhood of Spokane. Together, they had three sons, Daniel J. Evans Jr., Mark Evans, and Bruce Evans; and nine grandchildren.

Statewide races in Washington

1983 U.S. Senate special election in Washington

• Dan Evans (incumbent) – 672,326
• Mike Lowry – 540,981

1972 Washington gubernatorial election

• Dan Evans (incumbent) – 747,825
• Albert Rosellini – 630,613

1968 Washington gubernatorial election

• Dan Evans (incumbent) – 692,378
• John J. O'Connell – 560,262

1964 Washington gubernatorial election

• Dan Evans – 697,256
• Albert Rosellini (incumbent) – 548,692

References

;Other sources

• Eric McHenry, "Engineer of Change", Columns (the University of Washington alumni magazine), June 2007, p. 22–26.

References

1. Banel, Feliks. (February 9, 2022). "Former Washington Gov. Dan Evans reflects on storied career, state of modern GOP, and more". [[KIRO-FM]].
2. McHenry 2007, p. 24–25.
3. descended from a family that had first arrived in the [[Washington Territory]] in 1859; his maternal grandfather had served as a member in one of the first state senates in Washington. He was of Welsh descent. He grew up in the [[Laurelhurst, Seattle. Laurelhurst]] neighborhood, and attended [[Roosevelt High School (Seattle)
4. McHenry 2007, p.25.
5. "P: Distinguished Eagle Scout Recipients". NESA.org.
6. [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=E000236 Congressional Biography], accessed online August 13, 2007.
7. "Washington's 1970 Abortion Reform Victory: The Referendum 20 Campaign – Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project".
8. Daniel J Evans Oral History
9. (August 30, 1973). "Aide to Washington's Governor Posed as Student in Foe's Camp". [[The New York Times]].
10. (September 23, 2024). "Daniel J. Evans, Washington State Governor and Senator, Is Dead at 98". [[The New York Times]].
11. Evans, Daniel J.. (April 17, 1988). "Why I'm Quitting the U.S. Senate".
12. "TO PASS H.R. 3706. (MOTION PASSED) SEE NOTE(S) 19.".
13. "TO PASS S. 557, CIVIL RIGHTS RESTORATION ACT, A BILL TO RESTORE THE BROAD COVERAGE AND CLARIFY FOUR CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS BY PROVIDING THAT IF ONE PART OF AN INSTITUTION IS FEDERALLY FUNDED, THEN THE ENTIRE INSTITUTION MUST NOT DISCRIMINATE.".
14. "TO ADOPT, OVER THE PRESIDENT'S VETO OF S. 557, CIVIL RIGHTS RESTORATION ACT, A BILL TO RESTORE BROAD COVERAGE OF FOUR CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS BY DECLARING THAT IF ONE PART OF AN INSTITUTION RECEIVES FEDERAL FUNDS, THEN THE ENTIRE INSTITUTION MUST NOT DISCRIMINATE. TWO-THIRDS OF THE SENATE, HAVING VOTED IN THE AFFIRMATIVE, OVERRODE THE PRESIDENTIAL VETO.".
15. Turner, Wallace. (October 21, 1987). "Senator Evans Won't Run in '88". [[The New York Times]].
16. (August 18, 2023). "James Buckley, conservative senator and brother of late writer William F. Buckley, dies at 100".
17. (January 28, 2024). "Nancy Evans, Washington's former first lady, dies at 90".
18. "Former WA Gov. Dan Evans dies at 98".
19. (2024-09-22). "Dan Evans, Washington state governor and U.S. senator, dies at 98". [[Washington Post]].
20. (August 21, 2017). "'A fitting tribute': Olympic Wilderness renamed for longtime outdoors advocate, former Gov. Dan Evans". Seattle Times.
21. "Board and Committees". Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition.
22. "S.2165 – Washington Park Wilderness Act of 1988". U.S. Congress.
23. "S.2055 – Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act". U.S. Congress.
24. "May 29, 1959, page 18 - The Spokesman-Review at Newspapers.com".
25. "Election Search Results – Elections & Voting – WA Secretary of State".
26. "Election Search Results – Elections & Voting – WA Secretary of State".
27. "Elections Search Results: November 1968 General". [[Secretary of State of Washington]].
28. "Elections Search Results: November 1964 General". [[Secretary of State of Washington]].