Daniel J. Evans

He then served as Republican leader of the House before being elected governor in 1964. He was re-elected two times more in 1968 and in 1972. Considered to be a moderate Republican, particularly on social and environmental issues, Evans supported Nelson Rockefeller for the Republican nomination for president in 1968 and refused to endorse Richard Nixon, despite giving the keynote address at that year's Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida. Evans was considered a potential candidate for vice president of the United States during his time as governor, but was never chosen. In 1983, he was appointed to the United States Senate following the death of Henry M. Jackson, and was elected in a special election in November and served until 1989, declining to run again.

• Jr Sr — United States Senator • State — Washington • Term Start — September 8, 1983 • Term End — January 3, 1989 • Predecessor — Henry M. Jackson • Successor — Slade Gorton • Office1 — 2nd President of Evergreen State College • Term Start1 — June 6, 1977 • Term End1 — September 8, 1983 • Predecessor1 — Charles J. McCann • Successor1 — Joseph D. Olander • Office2 — Chair of the National Governors Association • Term Start2 — June 3, 1973 • Term End2 — June 2, 1974 • Predecessor2 — Marvin Mandel • Successor2 — Cal Rampton • Order3 — 16th Governor of Washington • Lieutenant3 — John Cherberg • Term Start3 — January 13, 1965 • Term End3 — January 12, 1977 • Predecessor3 — Albert Rosellini • Successor3 — Dixy Lee Ray • Office4 — Minority Leader of the Washington House of Representatives • Term Start4 — January 9, 1961 • Term End4 — January 11, 1965 • Predecessor4 — August P. Mardesich • Successor4 — John L. O'Brien • State House5 — Washington • District5 — 43rd • Term Start5 — January 14, 1957 • Term End5 — January 11, 1965 • Predecessor5 — R. Mort Frayn • Successor5 — Newman H. Clark • Birth Name — Daniel Jackson Evans • Born — 16 October 1925 • Birthplace — Seattle, Washington, U.S. • Died — 20 September 2024 • Place of death — Seattle, Washington, U.S. • Party — Republican • Children — 3 • Education — University of Washington (BS, MS) • Allegiance — United States • Branch — United States Navy • Service Years — 1943–1946 1951–1953 • Battles — World War II Korean War

Evans was born in Seattle to Lester and Irma Alice (Ide) Evans, 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 neighborhood, and attended Roosevelt High School. 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 was 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) in Seattle, 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 degree in 1948 and a Master of Science degree in 1949). In 2007, UW 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 the plans for the (now-former) Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle.

Evans served in the Washington State House of Representatives from 1957 to 1965 before being elected governor. • Illustration — Evans during his tenure as 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. Additionally he signed a bill to legalize abortion in the first four months of a pregnancy and fought unsuccessfully for a state income tax, two more liberal positions. • Illustration — Evans as a United States Senator, 1985

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 in Washington state history, after Arthur B. Langlie and later Jay Inslee. A 1981 University of Michigan study named him as one of 10 outstanding American governors of the 20th century. He declined to run for a fourth term in 1976. Inslee joined both Langlie and Evans, becoming the third Washington governor to serve three terms with his re-election victory in 2020. Serial killer Ted Bundy was 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 and sneaking around wearing wigs, disguises, and a fake mustache as a campaign volunteer trying to gain information to help Evans' campaign. From 1977 to 1983, Evans was the second president of Evergreen State College in Olympia, which he had created in 1967 by signing a legislative act authorizing the formation of the college. The largest building on the Evergreen campus is named after him, the Daniel J. Evans Library. He was suggested 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.

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 in 1983 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 an April 1988 column in The New York Times Magazine, "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 in addition to voting to override president Ronald Reagan's veto. Evans voted in favor of Robert Bork's Supreme Court nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States, which failed when the U.S. Senate rejected Bork's nomination.

After leaving the Senate in 1989, Evans founded his own consulting firm, Daniel J. Evans Associates. Governor of Washington Mike Lowry appointed him to the Board of Regents of the University of Washington in 1993; Evans served as the board's president from 1996 to 1997. In 1999, the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at UW was named for him. He went on to work in media, doing an editorial weekly on KIRO-TV newscasts from the early- to mid-1990s. In 2012, he was listed as a director of the Initiative for Global Development. His autobiography was published in 2022. Evans became the oldest living former U.S. senator after James L. Buckley passed away in August 2023. 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 98. He was the last living former U.S. senator born in the 1920s.

Evans was a Boy Scout whose early experiences hiking in the Olympic Mountains nurtured a life-long love of the wilderness. He supported Congress' creation of North Cascades National Park in 1968. As governor, he persuaded 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 also legislation creating the national scenic area in the Columbia River Gorge. In 1989, he co-founded the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition, with U.S. House of Representatives member Mike Lowry. In 2017, the Olympic Wilderness in Olympic National Park was renamed to Daniel J. Evans Wilderness, in his honor.

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

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

He was employed by Evergreen State College. Recorded positions include member of the Washington House of Representatives, Governor of Washington and United States senator. He belonged to American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He worked at Washington, D.C, Olympia and Seattle.