Robert Lewis "Bob" Evans

Robert Lewis "Bob" Evans, 89, Gallipolis, Ohio passed away on the 21st day of June, 2007 of complications due to a stroke. He was surrounded by his family and loved ones. He was preceded in death by his father and mother, Stanley Lewis Evans and Elizabeth Lewis Evans; daughter, Gwendolyn Elizabeth Kayser; and sisters, Jerry Miller and Eva Jenny Mills.

He is survived by his wife of sixty-seven years, Jewell Victoria Evans and children: Stanley Lewis (Tami) Evans II, Robbin Lewis Chamberlain, Deborrah Anne (Paul) Donskov, Robert Stephen (Rebecca) Evans and John Robert Evans; grandchildren: Stanley Lewis Evans III, Andrew Lewis Evans, Robert Christopher (Susan) Evans, John Maxwell Chamberlain and Catherine Alexandra Chamberlain, Michael Stanley "Misha" Donskov, Anthony Stephen Donskov, Matthew Alexander Donskov, Barton (Jill) Douglas Kayser, Leigh Ashley (Dan) Gorman, Tracer James Evans, Taylor Lee Evans; and fourteen great-grandchildren.

Bob was born 30 May, 1918 in Sugar Ridge, Wood County, Ohio. Due to family hardships, Bob attended four different first grades in his first year of grammar school and as a result, he never learned to read well and he'd be the first one to tell you. However, that never stopped Bob. By 1937, he graduated from Greenbriar Military School in Greenbriar, West Virginia with honors in Arithmetic, Geometry and the prestigious Rifle Team. He was later conferred a member of the Greenbriar Hall of Fame. From 1937-1939, Bob attended the Ohio State University School of Veterinary Medicine and was forced to withdraw due to chronic migraine headaches.

In 1940, he married Jewell Victoria Waters of Circleville and at that time he opened a small Malt Shoppe in downtown Gallipolis which he operated until he was called in to the U.S. Army to serve his Country in 1943. He was honorably discharged in 1945 and returned home for the birth of his third child. At this time he opened the ten stool Steak House with Herb Bush and in the same year began making sausage for distribution. He worked nearly all the time, finding only a little time here and there to fish, hunt (his passions) or look for a farm to purchase. In 1952, Bob purchased the old Niamiah Woods Farm from Rio Grande College. This farm would later become the now famous Bob Evans Farms.
In 1953, outside investors, father Stanley, uncle Emerson, Casey McKenzie, cousin Tim, Morris Haskins and Harlan Martin were added to Bob's budding sausage company and his family was moved to the Rio Grande Farm.

It was during the 1960's that Bob served extensively as director on the Ohio and American Quarter Horse Association Board. He also found time to plant more than 200,000 trees and shrubs, providing wildlife habitat on his newly acquired farm. Bob is the only man in the State of Ohio to be honored three times by the National Wildlife Federation. He was honored with the "Bald Eagle Award", the highest conservation award in Ohio, by the League of Ohio Sportsmen.

He is the only Lifetime member of the 4-H Organization and is also a 4-H Hall of Fame Member. Bob is well known for his 4-H Colt Giveaway Program which gives forty four colts per year to deserving 4-Hers. He is known for his annual 4-H competitive trail rides and for helping to save the Spanish Barb Mustang as he brought a small herd of Medicine Hat mustangs from New Mexico and Utah to Bob Evans Farms in 1972 where they flourished and thrived. He became the first president of the Spanish Barb Mustang Breeders Association.

In 1977 he was appointed to the Ohio Board of Regents where he served thirteen years. In 1978 he received the Governor's Award and later was inducted into the Central Ohio Business Hall of Fame. But, if you could ask Bob today, he would tell you it was his dedication to year round grazing and innovative pasturing techniques that he championed to help the small farmers keep their family farms. This has been his biggest contribution to Ohio's farmers and to their families.

His most enduring legacy, the Ohio Appalachian Center for Higher Education, OACHE, established by Bob through the Board of Regents in 1993 and centered at Shawnee State University, Portsmouth, which gives assistance to twenty-nine Ohio and West Virginia Counties. The OACHE places emphasis on "access to opportunity" and promotes higher education to both youth and adults. His passion had been his devotion to encourage more and more Appalachian residents and especially Ohioans to go to college and to lead students out of poverty and into a better quality of life.

Other memberships include the Morning Dawn Lodge 7, Gallipolis, a 32nd Degree Mason, Scottish Rite Valley of Columbus, and 33rd Degree Mason, Gallipolis Shrine Club.

Funeral services, open to the public, will be held 1:00 PM Tuesday, June 26, 2007 in the Lyne Center Gymnasium, University of Rio Grande, Rio Grande, Ohio, with Rev. John Jackson officiating. Private interment will follow in the Mound Hill Cemetery under the direction of the McCoy-Moore Funeral Home, Wetherholt Chapel, 420 First Ave, Gallipolis. Military Graveside Rites and the presentation of the American Flag will be conducted by the Gallia County Veterans Service Organizations. Friends may call Monday, June 25, 2007 at the Bob Evans Farms Hall, University of Rio Grande 1:00-4:00 PM and 6:00-9:00 PM. Masonic Services will be conducted on Monday 9:00 PM by the Morning Dawn Lodge 7, Gallipolis.

A Memorial service with limited seating will be held 2:00 PM July 7, 2007 at the Mershon Auditorium, Ohio State University, 1871 N. High St, Columbus, Ohio.

In lieu of flowers, The Evans Family encourages well wishers to donate memorial gifts to the newly established OACHE Bob Evans Memorial Fund for Scholarships, Payable to the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, P.O. Box 456, Nelsonville, OH 45641.