David Evans: teacher, scholar and artist who enriched our lives

December 11, 2007

David Evans – teacher, scholar, mentor, poet and artist – died earlier this year after a life devoted to enriching the lives of others.

Dr Evans is remembered with great affection by his former students and colleagues at the University of New England, where he taught in the English Department from the early '60s until his retirement in 1994.

Typical of his engagement with the University and Armidale communities was his voluntarily-assumed role as mentor and friend of Indonesian students and their families. Starting from a desire to alleviate the difficulties of living within an unfamiliar culture, this role led him to become fluent in Indonesian and to spend his evenings at the residential colleges helping Indonesian and other overseas students with their written work. He is remembered as having transformed the lives of these students and their families over two generations.

Always a believer in the value of strong social networks within the University community, he was, as a student, a founding (non-residential) member of Wright College, UNE's original residential college, and was appointed a Non-resident Fellow of Earle Page College in 1968.

Born in Goulburn in 1937, David Evans came to UNE as an undergraduate in 1954 – the year the University obtained its autonomy from the University of Sydney. He went on to gain a UNE Arts degree with First Class Honours in English, and then a Diploma of Education from Armidale Teachers' College, finishing Dux of the Teachers' College in 1959.

After several years of teaching at Maitland Boys' High School he joined the staff of UNE's English Department and quickly rose to the level of Senior Lecturer, gaining his PhD from UNE in 1967.

His passion for Early English literature took him to the UK for several periods of sabbatical study, while, back in the UNE lecture room, he was able to share that passion – particularly his love of Chaucer – with his students, becoming life-long friends with many of them.

Even as a schoolboy David had drawn and painted. He developed this talent in adulthood, producing an impressive body of work that includes paintings and drawings in a variety of styles and with a wide range of subject-matter, as well as illuminated manuscripts inspired by medieval art. Over four years in the 1980s he worked on what is perhaps his artistic masterpiece – a hand-written and illustrated text of the Old English epic Beowulf. That unique book is on display – along with many other works of his – in the Uralla gallery ("Chaucer on Bridge Street") that he opened in 2000 and managed until his death on the 21st of September 2007.

His belief in the vital role of art in the community led him to become a driving force behind the establishment of the New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM) in Armidale. As well as his vision and enthusiasm, he lent his creative talents to the project: for example, by donating the proceeds from the sale of one of his published books of poems to the NERAM fund.

A devoted family man, David Evans is survived by his wife Helen, their three children Michael, Peter and Jenny, and three grandchildren.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows the initial letter of the Lord's Prayer in Old English - lettering and illumination by David Evans. A PHOTOGRAPH of Dr Evans, taken at UNE in 1979, can be seen by clicking on the Lord's Prayer image.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at December 11, 2007 03:30 PM