Doug Evans obituary

[Rick Smith]

 

 

Douglas B Evans

December 8, 1927 – August 29, 2021

 

 

It is with the deepest sorrow that I report Doug Evans’ passing at age 93.

 

He was born in Tacoma, Washington, and first lived in National just outside of Mount Rainier National Park. The family soon moved to Mount Rainier where his mother worked for the concessioner, and later the National Park Service, and his dad worked at a mine inholding within the park and later was the procurement officer for the Park. They lived in a log cabin among a small group of cabins next to what is now Cougar Rock Campground. Doug had the fondest memories of growing up in Mount Rainier and never tired of recalling those wonderful days with a National Park as his playground. Doug’s Park Service career started at the young age of 16 as a Junior Laborer because of a special wartime provision since many men were fighting in WWI. He served as a fireguard, and his favorite – ski patrol.

 

After high school, he spent two years in the Navy on assignment on the U.S.S. Fargo. He then returned to Washington and received a degree in Botany at the University of Washington. His career as a ranger began – first with the Washington State Parks, and then the National Park Service.

 

His first NPS position was as a ranger at Mount Rainier, he spent a short term at Mammoth Cave as District Ranger, and then back to the west as Assistant Chief Park Naturalist at Grand Canyon, Chief Park Naturalist at Big Bend, then Lake Mead, and finally as Chief of Interpretation for the Southwest Region, located in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

 

He took advantage of an early retirement offer at age 52 and spent the next many years enjoying the things he loved – travel, hiking, photography, reading.

 

Doug married Shirley Sethe in 1949 and they had three children Dan, Suzan, and Doug A.

 

Doug and Doris married in 1978. In Doug and Doris’ 43 years of marriage, there were many adventures traveling around the world, hiking countless trails, camping in the wilderness, returning to Big Bend where Doris taught in the park school for eight years, and loving their home in the Arizona desert with bobcats, coyotes, and javelinas as their neighbors.

If there is any consolation in this saddest of times, it is the satisfaction that he had a long, happy, rewarding life. He cherished his career in the National Park Service.

 

Doug leaves behind his three wonderful children, Dan, Suzan, and Doug; grandson, Micah, and his two children, Ian and Avery; his brother David and his wife Bonnie and their family, his loving wife, Doris, and his beloved world of nature.

 

Doris Evans can be contacted at  devan...@gmail.com

5006 West Placita de los Vientos

Tucson, AZ 85745

 

 

Rick Smith

5264 N. Fort Yuma Trail

Tucson, AZ 85750

Tel: 520-529-7336

Cell: 505-259-7161

Email: rsmit...@comcast.net