An enduring ethos of learning

When he was a teenager, says Richard J. Evans, his father – who had a standard high school education but a keen interest in law – would often discuss with his youngest son case decisions from the New York State courts about which he had read.

Such was the environment in which he and his two brothers grew up, says Evans, now a partner in the Rochester, N.Y., law firm Evans & Fox, LLP. From unprivileged origins (parents Murray and Adeline Evans ran dry cleaning plants in Buffalo and Rochester), Evans recalls the singular emphasis in their family: the value of education and its promise of affording their children the means to acquire college and professional training.

To honor the memory of his parents, Evans has made a major donation of a legacy gift of $100,000 to support scholarship aid for students in financial need.

“It felt right to make a statement to acknowledge how indebted I feel for having received my education at the Law School,” Evans admits, “And to offer this gesture on behalf of my mom and dad.  During the difficult adolescent years, my mother would often say to me, ‘You know, Dickie, the way you’re constantly arguing with me, there’s only one route for you: Become a lawyer, defend your position, and prosper.’”

“My dad was a great guy,” as he continued his remembrance. “Though he was unschooled, he was very intelligent, very clever, very quick. My parents, both from immigrant families, never had the opportunity to go on to higher education. They were children of the Depression, and in those lean years, high school was the end of the road for formal education.  Married in their early twenties, they shared an avowed goal: to encourage their children and to dedicate their working lives to support whatever journey the kids took to achieve higher education.”

Evans has indeed done well with his SUNY Buffalo Law degree, and he says he continues to learn and grow professionally. “I love the law,” he says earnestly. “Not to say it’s stress-free, because it certainly isn’t, and not to say I haven’t had dark days, because like everyone else, I have had them. But for daily mental stimulation and constant growth and development, I believe there’s no career like law. Every day is different, with new developments, twists, and turns.”  Recently he concluded training as a certified federal court mediator, and he is putting four decades’ worth of skills to use in this new approach to law in the Rochester area.

“It all adds up to ‘fire in the belly,’” he admits, “A quality of diligence and academic curiosity that I hope the students who benefit from my gift will demonstrate.”  As he reflects on the Class of ’72, incidentally the last to spend three years at the Law School’s old Eagle Street location, he remembers the dedicated professors who fed that passion. “Men like Adolf Homburger teaching civil procedure, Joseph Laufer analyzing tort principles of liability, and W. Howard Mann leading us through the maze of Constitutional law, these were the academic superstars of law tutoring, and we learned well from them,” he recalls.

Looking at the present and future, Evans is positive as well as encouraging.  Having sat on the Dean’s Advisory Council at the Law School, he has had the opportunity to watch his alma mater grow. 

“I’m very impressed with the quality of the professors being hired at the Law School. Having built on the strong tradition I benefitted from, I am impressed with the superior academic levels of the faculty. It is clear that there’s an underlying effort at the Law School to engage in the best and brightest talent. These are teachers who will, I am sure, encourage students to launch careers both in public service and private practice. No greater thanks can be offered than to know the next generation of outstanding legal minds will be our local and national legacy."