A Tribute to Evan Williams

Delivered at the Senior Soiree, May 8, 2004
By Liz Safran, assistant professor of geological science and environmental studies

It seems to me quite appropriate that the senior gift supports a Tree Walk, because Evan is just about as tall as a tree, and he loves to walk. He spent several weeks last summer walking around Wales, and he began a tradition of walking the Portland Marathon in fall 2000.

But Evan is not only a person who loves to walk, he is a person who “walks the walk.” He acts on his beliefs. His actions are borne forward on a kind of tsunami of enthusiasm -- about the environment, the liberal arts, the College, and above all about students. In pursuit of these passions he has made staggeringly diverse contributions to LC life. In fact, as I thought about, I realized that one could do a kind of Evan Walk around campus

We could start our Evan Walk in this building, which houses the offices of various student organizations. Evan was a long-standing faculty advisor to the student governing body, and according to one recent graduate he “very often provided insight into the historic….decisions and helped things run smoothly from year to year.” He was also involved with SEED, the environmental club on campus and served as advisor for the yearbook for many years.

Not far from Templeton is the grand old Manor House, the administrative seat of the College. The Manor House was Evan’s home from 1992 to 1995, when he served as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College. One of Evan’s symbolically significant gestures in that post was to devise our unique and appropriate college motto: “Explorare, Discere, Sociare.” This means “Explore, Discover, Work Together,” which is basically what Thomas Jefferson instructed Captain Meriwether Lewis to do when he sent Lewis & Clark on their westward journey of discovery.

If we continue our imaginary Evan Walk and head northward on campus, we come to Howard Hall, still under construction. There you will see six signs describing the many environmentally friendly features of our newest building. These signs were researched and devised by students in Evan’s Introduction to ENVS class as part of the hands-on, community based projects Evan emphasized. Keen to capitalize on strong College-wide interest in responsible environmental management, Evan pushed some years ago for the creation of a formal body to deal such issues. His efforts resulted in the creation of the Lewis & Clark Sustainability Council, of which Evan, of course, became the leader. And this spring, the college officially adopted a sustainability policy, signaling its ongoing commitment to environmental considerations in campus management.

Parents, you have no doubt wandered into the library to see where your children have spent, or claim to have spent, a great deal of their time at Lewis & Clark. Behind the circulation desk, you will see the Phi Beta Kappa charter for the Gamma chapter of Oregon, here at Lewis & Clark. Lewis & Clark applied for membership in Phi Beta Kappa three times, finally attaining membership in 1998 when the effort was spearheaded by – you guessed it! – Evan Williams. Evan served as president early in the chapter’s history, and then became essentially permanent Secretary/Treasurer. More importantly, every year Evan infused the induction ceremony with humor and life, teaching PBK inductees the “secret handshake,” and showing off his own PBK key. His key is strung on a chain with his father’s and grandfather’s keys, and the three keys read: “Evan Williams of Williams College,” “Clark Williams of Williams College,” and “William Williams of Williams College,” if you can possibly believe that. In sharing his own tradition, Evan sought to encourage a sense of commitment to that which we value.

Before leaving the library you should be sure to note that all the paper in the photocopy machines – indeed, all paper used on campus – has 30% post-consumer recycled content. This is because of Evan and his students, who both nudged tirelessly to get this and collected and analyzed masses of data to show that such paper has no greater propensity to jam than virgin paper. Thusly they drowned the principal objection to the idea in statistics.

As you turn east and descend toward the Olin Physics and Chemistry building, you will be greeted by the sight of bright yellow bike racks that Evan donated to the College to make it easier for people to not drive here. You will walk past the lecture hall where Evan taught 100s upon 100s of chemistry students at all levels. If you come back next year to drop off your younger child, you will likely see solar panels on the rooftop of Olin, because one of this year’s ENVS seniors, Catherine Austin, found a company that will essentially donate them to the college.

Your Evan Walk might end in Evan’s office, which is like an old growth forest – multi-storied, incredibly rich, full of evolution and history, and, frankly, acting as a short-term carbon sink in the form of paper. Paper! Brochures for the Environmental Affairs Symposia that Evan and the seniors organized annually, copies of the campus environmental magazine he advised, files on dozens of advisees, and of course student reports from the dedicated ENVS courses he taught annually. But, happily LC likes carbon sinks – it is the first and only college in the country to achieve compliance w/the Kyoto Protocol as a result of an initiative spearheaded by another ENVS major, recent graduate Julian Dautrement-Smith.

I think these stories reveal the way in which the tree metaphor is most apt. Evan’s impact on this College is not a discrete phenomenon, like an earthquake. It is an ongoing phenomenon, propagated by the seedlings that Evan sowed and the ways in which he inspired them. Drew Moore, a recent graduate now studying Environmental Law across the street, recalled that every time he tried to slide by with a “reasonable” but not excellent performance, Evan would give him “the look.” And Drew would trudge home, drink more coffee, and reach deeper. “Evan made it his duty,” he said, “to make me do my best.”

By holding them to high standards, by caring about all parts of their lives, and by treasuring each student’s passions and quirks, Evan earned his students’ love and trust and helped them to realize their own ambitions. Graham Gilbert, who graduated two years ago and now works for a hydrology consulting company, recalls traveling with Evan and a number of other students to hear a speaker in Salem. At dinner afterwards, the students were unselfconsciously chattering away, and Evan just sat back and listened, with an air of intense and quiet satisfaction about him. He was at that moment a man at ease, a man who knew he had helped set wonderful things in motion.

Thank you, seniors, for honoring this man.