Richard's Life Sketch Given By Shane

Richard Lewis Evans III was born on July 6th, 1943 at St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco, California. To his mother Dolores Raie Morford Evans and his father Richard Lewis Evans Jr.
His father was in the Navy and as a child they moved a lot. Dad started school in kindergarten in Cordoff, New Jersey in 1948. He stayed there with his family thru the 2nd grade. His third grade year they moved several times a memory of this time was when he went to school in Feather Falls California this was the place were he got his first taste of football, he was the center on the flag football team.Dad had two sisters at this time Susan and Karen. In 1951 dads mom and dad went thru some rough times and ended up getting divorced.
His mom moved them back to New Jersey were she began to raise the kids on her own. Grandma worked at Quintos Bar and Grill. This is the place that she met a man named Thomas Watt. The two eventually were married and he became a great influence and step father to my dad and his sisters. In addition to Aunt Margret being born of these parents.
Dads first job came in the spring of 1952. He was nine years old and he worked for Galetto’s Meat Market. He cleaned, stocked shelves and put soda pop in the cooler all this for .20cents per hour. In 1952 dad used to ride his bike alone on Sunday morning to attend Carduff Baptist Church. This is were he started to learn about the savior. He was given a bible while he was there and he still has it today.
Dad being in the forth grade wrote a story about a fight he had gotten in. “One day after school Cynthia Birch got mad at me and wanted a fight. We got on the bus and I worried all the way to our stop. We got off and a bunch of kids huddled around, and the fight started with lots of punches being thrown, wrestling around on the ground; when it was over I got the crap beat out of me. When I told my dad Tom, he was not to happy with me for letting a little black girl beat me up.
After the fourth grade in New Jersey, Grandpa Watt who was also in the Navy was transferred to Fallon, Nevada. They lived on an 80 acre farm. They farmed and raised some cows. This is where my dad got his first itch for wanting be a cowboy and that itch never left him.
In 1956 Grandpa Watt got transferred to Brunswick Maine, dad was 13 now and was going to school at Coffin Jr. High this is were he developed a great love for football.
Dad went on to Brunswick High were he excelled in three sports, Football, Swimming and track. He was the state champ in three events on the track field. He was the starting halfback on the football team as a sophomore, eventually receiving a scholarship at Dana University to play football for them.
High school was a most enjoyable experience for dad he recalls his Jr. Year of high school signing up for chemistry. And writes this about it. “Chemistry class was different for it changed my life and far beyond this life forever. I walked into class and was totally struck by this beautiful girl, Carlene Rytkonen whom I had never seen before. I could not take my eyes off of her and noticed after several days it bothered her. It took from September to February before I got the courage up to ask her out for a date, but after that we were inseparable.” By the spring of 1960mom and dad were going steady and she “wore his ring around her neck”
In 1961 dad went to Dana College on a football scholarship. Dad had a great college career with many stories of games, injuries and wonderful friends. He held a school record of the longest run from a scrimmage for a very long time and as far as he knew it hadn’t been broken yet.
By 1966 dad was off the University of Nebraska for graduate school to get his masters degree. After a year there he transferred up to University of Wyoming. It was in Wyoming in 1967 were he became a member of the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. He always cherished the fact that he had such a strong testimony of the gospel and it really helped him with some of the trials he would face latter in life.
In 1967 dad had gotten a job with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He went back to Maine and stayed the summer worked at the Navy Exchange PX and spent every evening with his future wife Carlene. He headed out west to Ft. Wingate New Mexico he had been there about a week when mom called him and suggested that they get married so on September 1, 1967. They worked at Ft. Wingate for a year then moved to Rosland Nebraska to teach school. Dad was the head coach of the football, basketball and track teams there. Because of the benefits and salary he returned to Ft. Wingate High School There he met a man Edwin Hodges who later lured him to Ramah. Dad was selected by Mr. Hodges in 1970 to the position of Teacher Supervisor Guidance Counselor at the Ramah Dormitory. And that is how the Evans ended up in Ramah.
Between 1971 and 1981 mom and dad had six kids. Amy, Richard the IV, Shane, Thomas, Carl, and Jennifer.
This was a very busy and rewarding time as they raised a family.
On January 1, 1976 dad was officially appointed Administrative Officer for the Ramah Navajo Agency, a position he came to enjoy thoroughly. In 1976 dad got his patriarchal blessing. A blessing that provided an interesting and convincing direction that he should be involved in. He was to stay among the Lamanites and be a friend unto them. Dad made many lifetime friends working with the Ramah Navajos. He also traveled nation wide and sat on various committees involved on the National Scene for Happenings in the Indian Affairs. He at one time was able to be a guest at the White House and meet President Ronald Regan.
In 1979 Dad was called to be the Bishop of the Ramah Ward. He served this calling as he did any previous callings with lots of prayer and hard work.
One thing about Dad is that he had a great work ethic. This is a trait that he passed on to his kids.Dad really enjoyed watching his kids play sports in High School. He and mom went to a lot of games over the years.
By 1992 his three oldest kids were out of the house and making a life for there selves.
In 1993 a position for Superintendent came up at the Mescalero Agency. Dad took the job and started to work with the Mescalero Apache. Dad had great experiences and also made some great friends down there. He worked closely with Mr. Wendall Chino and developed great respect and a great friendship with him. Another man that dad thought of as a brother was Dale Webb he said Dale and his wife looked out for him while he was there. He was a great person that my dad really enjoyed being in around.
On May 1st 1994 while returning to Mescalero Dad started having chest pains on May 3rd he had a heart attack. He wrote “this changed my life forever”.
Over the next few years his kids started to get married and have families of there own. Dad really loved to be around the grandkids. Two of his sons went on missions Tom went to Calgery Canada and Carl went to Morris Town New Jersey. I know that he was very proud of them for that.
Dad worked as a teacher or sub in Ramah for a while and then started feeling better and started a Consulting Business and Mom worked with him he went back to Mescalero and worked there until July 18th 2002. He had worked there for a little over six years. He retired and went home to enjoy life that wasn’t such a rat race.
He started to run a few cows something that he always wanted to do. He would go to the ranch and check water put out salt and fix fences. He loved to be out there all day. His retirement didn’t last long as in 2003 he went to work with his sons at Red Mesa Electric as the finance officer. He worked there until 2007 and decided that he had enough and wanted to be with mom more. He wanted to work at the temple which he did until time of his death.
There is so much that I have learned this week as I have researched and read through his journals. There is no way that I can touch on all of the things that were important in his life. This is just a very brief summary. I do know that dad loved mom very much. I do know that dad loved his kids and grandkids very much. I do know that dad had a very strong testimony of the gospel and that he lived his life according to the teachings and principals of the gospel. I know that he is very proud of his legacy and family 6 kids and 18 grandkids.
Before I end I need to touch on one final item. “THE DRILLER” All the kids know what this is. There are also other neighbor hood kids that know about it. We would always wait for dad to get home from work and hope that he would throw passes in the back yard with us. He taught us routes the slant was sweet, post was great, down and out down and in all good. But when it was your turn and he called out the driller you would just cringe because it was 5 yards and the ball was coming fast when you turned around. Hince the name driller. I think that when we played with out him that’s all we would call out for Carl but it must of helped cause he went on to catch most everything thrown at him.
I could go on and on: Green suburban, camping out at Duke Davis’s, Coles Ranch, camping trips to Utah, Gallup Bengal football games. Raiders, BYU football, Mike Smith, NFL games with the boys.
We are going to miss dad very much but we know that the savior has work for him now and he will be an obedient servant and do as the lord asks.
In the name of Jesus Christ amen.