David Evans was born in San Diego, CA on June 1, 1932. He left his friends and family on earth on May 16, 2018. Between those dates this man’s journey left a trail of warmth, caring leadership, humility and a compassion for others.
David attended schools in San Diego, Ca. graduating from San Diego State University with a master’s degree, then later a doctorate in education from Stanford University.
He began his career as executive director of the upper Midwest regional labora-tory in Minneapolis, Minnesota, later returning to California as the assistant state superintendent chief officer of programming planning and development. In 1973, he moved to Monterey and became general manager of CTB/McGraw-Hill responsible for overall operation and management.
His true passion in life was helping children get a better education. He left McGraw-Hill to become the superintendent of San Juan Bautista, California, and later served simultaneously as the superintendent of two districts. David worked in these two districts until his retirement.
During these years, David met Joyce Lake. They married in 1984 and David and his son, Robert, welcomed her daughters, Kerry and Catheline, into his life.
While serving as superintendent, David accepted the challenges of leadership and served in various positions in the Association of California School Admin-istrators. It was from this experience and his astute observations that he deter-mined large urban school districts benefited from legislation inordinately when compared to the smaller school districts. This fair minded person set out to right that wrong!
Working with a group of small school superintendents, David was the driving force behind the formation of the Small School Districts’ Association. Today, SSDA represents thousands of students in hundreds of small districts throughout California. It was David’s vision, his sense of righteousness that even today helps provide millions of dollars to help educate and support those who at one time had no advocate.
In retirement, David continued to serve public education with the formation of an executive search firm, 4 Administrators, to match school district leadership needs with superintendent candidates. David also served on the Board for the Carmel Library for many years. Not only did he work hard, he loved his hob-bies. He loved basketball, tennis and his later passion, golf.
For all his accomplishments, David enjoyed those of others even more. He revered and took great pride in his family. He was always quick to share his families success stories whether they were in academics, athletics or the armed services, and he never missed an opportunity to be present for their many milestone events.
He will be missed by many but most by his loving wife of 33 years, Joyce; his son, Rob; his brother, Preston; his two step-daughters and his six grandchildren.
The many friends he made during his incredible journey are better for having known David Evans and a celebration of life will be announced.
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