Richard “Mark” Evans, Iowa State Class of 1972 passed away unexpectedly on April 3, 2022.

Mark was born on June 4, 1950, the third child, and only son, of Richard and Mary Evans in Des Moines, Iowa. Upon graduating from high school, he attended Iowa State University where he was a member of Delta Upsilon Fraternity, known affectionately as “Red” and “Reality” and majored in Mechanical Engineering. On graduation day he received his draft notice and served in the US Army in Thailand for 2 years during the Vietnam war.

Upon returning to the United States, Mark packed up his red hatchback and drove from Iowa to Washington, DC where he attended The American University and earned both his MPA in Public Policy and later an MBA in Business Management. It was in a statistics class where he met his future wife, Kathleen “Kathy” Kinney in 1974. They were married on August 15, 1976, in Jamestown, NY, the bicentennial year. Iowa State and Delta Upsilon brothers served in the wedding party with Kirby Hamman as the best man and Tim Preis and Bob Johnson as groomsmen.

Shortly after being married, Mark and Kathy moved to Atlanta and both started their careers with IBM, moving to Raleigh, North Carolina. Eight years after they were married, Kathy and Mark welcomed a son, Jonathan “Jay” Knight Evans in November of 1984. Mark loved taking Jay to biweekly movies at the cinema and sharing his passion for fishing on trips to Minnesota and Deep Creek Lake in Maryland. He coached Jay’s undefeated flag football team for 3 years, attended Jay’s baseball games and enjoyed watching his son grow up.

Mark had a successful 20-year career with IBM. He then became an IBM Business Partner and he was promoted to Vice President of Sales. He retired from sales, and in 2017 began substitute teaching at local middle and high schools in Montgomery County, Maryland where he lived since 1982 with his family. When Jay heard that his dad had taken on this teaching opportunity, he joked that Mark would be “eaten for lunch” by the middle schoolers. Mark endured, teaching math, science, English, PE, and even Spanish classes.

Mark is survived by his wife Kathy, son Jay, daughter-in-law Katherine Starr and granddaughter Hallie Patricia; his sisters Ann Hinshaw of Palm Springs, FL and Jill Stivers of Minneapolis, MN, sister-in-law Sharron (Rhoe) Henderson of Bemus Point, NY, nephew Christopher Henderson of Lakewood, NY, and niece Brittnay Henderson Snyder (Nick) of Palmyra, NY. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Nancy Nelson.

Mark was cremated and will be laid to rest beneath a tree that will be planted in his honor at his beautiful lake home during a small family service.  Mark loved his family immensely, and they will miss him dearly.