Lawrence Evans Obituary

Evans, Lawrence Gove Age 76, died Sunday November 20, 2011 at St. Anthony hospital in Chicago. Lawrence, for forty years a professor in the English Department at Northwestern University, was born on June 29, 1935 in Waterbury, CT to Roswell H. Evans Sr. and Ruth Gove Evans. He grew up in Morris Plains, NJ, graduating from Morristown H.S. in 1952 as Valedictorian. Lawrence attended Bates College with a full tuition scholarship and received his B.A. in English and Philosophy in 1956. During his days at Bates, he was named Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year and rated the first-ranking male student all four years. He did his graduate work at Harvard University, receiving an M.A. in English in 1957 and a Ph.D. in 1961 with a dissertation titled "Some Letters of Walter Pater." His honors at Harvard included a University Scholarship (1956-57); a Leman Scholarship; a two-time Charles Dexter Fellowship (1959, 1960); and the Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship (1960-1961). His teaching career began during graduate school as a Teaching Fellow (1957-1960), and after receiving his doctorate he taught at Harvard as an instructor of English until 1962.In 1962, Lawrence accepted a position as Instructor at Northwestern University. He was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1963, and to Associate Professor in 1971. At Northwestern, Lawrence taught courses in the English Department ranging from freshman seminars and introductory English literatures courses to graduate seminars in his area of interest, late Victorian literature, and served on numerous doctoral committees. He coordinated Northwestern University's Evening Divisions' English courses starting in 1969, and was the Director of Undergraduate Studies in English. In addition to his teaching duties, he participated as a member of the Undergraduate and Graduate Committees of the English Department, on the General Faculty Committee, and served on the Budget and Resources Advisory Committee. He was a faculty associate at Willard Residential College (1980), and held a leadership position in the American Association of University Professors. In 1968 he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He took a leave of absence from Northwestern in 1975-1976 to research the relationship between Victorian church history and literature. His edited Letters of Walter Pater was published in 1970 (Oxford). He retired from Northwestern University in 2001, and was elected to emeritus status on September 1, 2001. Lawrence was never married and leaves no children. He is survived by his younger brother, Roswell Jr. of Monroe Twp., NJ. Service for Lawrence were private. Info Smith-Corcoran Funeral Home 773-736-3833 or visit Lawrence's Memorial at www.smithcorcoran.com.

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Published by Chicago Sun-Times on Nov. 27, 2011.

Memories and Condolences
for Lawrence Evans

4 Entries

Gary Allen

September 14, 2023

Mine is another extremely belated entry here, since I just now stumbled on Prof. Evans´s obit while inquiring (on line) about another professor I had at Northwestern. As with the others who have left comments here, he was my favorite professor there, though I did not encounter him until my last year there. I was then among Prof. Evans´s very first students there, in the fall of 1962, when I signed up for the basic English Lit survey course that was then a prerequisite for English majors. This was my senior year, and I had just switched over to English Lit as a major late in my junior year, after having gone through a series of other majors that I wound up having grave second thoughts about. I had gotten off, though, to something of a shaky start on that endeavor in the last term of my junior year, and was beginning to wonder whether English Lit was just another in a long series of mistakes on my part (without a lot of time left for a start in a new direction). But I loved his course, and somehow I managed to impress him as an English Lit major worth salvaging from the academic dust heap toward which I was then headed. With his encouragement, I applied for and was admitted into his senior seminar course (which focused on Gerard Manley Hopkins´s "Wreck of the Deutschland" much of which stays with me, word for word for word.) And managed to finish up the year not only with all English Lit course requirements successfully completed, but with a pretty respectable academic record, all things considered (notwithstanding the somewhat less than stellar junior year blots thereon). Having been inspired by his teaching, I even considered, for a time, going on to grad school in English Lit and perhaps an academic career myself. But first came a couple of years of military service, and, by that time, with Viet Nam heating up, and with the draft still being very much alive and well (and on everyone's mind) every college graduate and his brother (and sister) were heading to grad school, many of them in English Lit. So, it just didn´t seem like a very promising option at that point, and I wound up going to law school instead. But I never lost the love for Hopkins and the other English poets, dramatists and novelists that Prof. Evans instilled in me. And I never forgot that it was Prof. Evans who pulled me from the slough of academic despond into which I had fallen before fortuitously winding up in his English Lit survey class. I´m also indebted to him for writing a recommendation for my successful law school application (which I made a trip to Evanston to personally ask him to do for me in the spring of 1969). It was, alas, the last time I saw him.

Linda Nelson Maddox

December 16, 2019

Lawrence Evans was a huge influence on my study at Northwestern as a graduate student in 1992-93. He stepped up and "mentored" my independent research for my master's thesis during rather troubled times on campus. I am so sorry for his loss and especially regret not having counseled with him subsequently during my further graduate work and visits to Chicago after my relocation to New York. He was a source of inspiration that will remain with me always. My condolences, belatedly, to his associates and family, as I only just now learned of his loss to the community.

David Urban

October 24, 2012

Lawrence Evans was also one of my best teachers when I was an undergraduate at Northwestern University. He really knew his material, and he was generous with his time.

I always regretted that I avoided taking a course with him until my senior year. He had a reputation for being very hard, but the challenge of his courses was matched by his willingness to spend time with students who wished to revise their essays.

I am now an English professor myself, and his pedagogical tactics still influence me.

Eric Schlesinger

March 8, 2012

Dr. Evans was one of my favorite professors at Northwestern, from 1970. His own personal passion for Walter Pater swept me along and I read him voraciously --- but also, his guidance and teaching has stayed with me to this day. I regret I never made the time to contact him again, or stop to see him during a trip to the Chicago area. But I am saddened to know he's gone, and send my sympathies to his surviving family.

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