Bob Evans | |
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Born | May 30, 1918 |
Died | June 21, 2007 | (aged 89)
Occupation | Restaurateur, Marketer |
Years active | 1948-2007 |
Spouse | Jewell Victoria Waters |
Children | Stanley Lewis II, Robbin Lewis, Deborrah Anne, Robert Steven, Gwendolyn Elizabeth, John Robert Evans |
Bob Evans (May 30, 1918 - June 21, 2007) was an American restaurateur and marketer of pork sausage products. He is perhaps best known for the American restaurant chain bearing his name. The company he founded also owns Mimi's Cafe and Owens Country Sausage.
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Early life and career
Robert Banks "Bob" Evans born on May 30, 1918, to Elizabeth Lewis and Stanley L. Evans in Sugar Ridge, Ohio.The family moved to Gallia County in 1929, where young Bob and his two sisters could grow up in the company of their many aunts and uncles. Bob married Jewell Waters in June 1940. They moved to Gallipolis, where he bought a restaurant named the Malt Shop in the early 1940s. When Bob was inducted into the Army, he sold his interest in the restaurant to a friend.
Bob Evans Farms got its start when Evans began making sausage on his southeastern Ohio farm to serve at a 12-stool diner he owned in nearby Gallipolis in 1948. In the following years, Evans went into the sausage business. The building where he made the sausage was built with open ends, at the suggestion of his father, so it could be used as a machinery shed if the sausage business failed. In 1953, a group of friends and family recognized the growing demand for Bob's sausage and became his business partners by establishing Bob Evans Farms. The original Bob Evans Restaurant on the farm was called The Sausage Shop. Although it started with 12 stools, today the restaurant can seat 134.
Bob Evans Restaurants
In 1953, the business was incorporated as Bob Evans Farms Inc. By 1957, the company opened a total of four sausage plants to keep up with demand. In 1963, Bob Evans Farms Inc. was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange with an original issue of 160,000 shares.
In 1964, the company decided to expand into the restaurant business, which resulted in the founding of Bob Evans Restaurants. These restaurants were designed in a red and white color "Steamboat Victorian" style. The first of these "new" Bob Evans Restaurants was located in Chillicothe, Ohio, but by the early 1970s the restaurants had expanded throughout Ohio. Expansion into other states was started in the late 1970s.
Evans served as a director and president of the company until his retirement on December 31, 1986. Evans died on June 21, 2007 at the age of 89. He was survived by his wife, Jewell, and their six children.
Accomplishments and community support
Although Evans retired from the company in 1986, he remained actively involved in his community and with numerous causes. Evans encouraged local farmers to use more efficient livestock grazing techniques that are better for the environment.
The only person in Ohio to be honored three times by the National Wildlife Federation, Evans spent more than 40 years preserving wildlife. He also planted seeds for the future of the agricultural industry through his support of youth organizations such as 4-H and FFA and his involvement in higher education. He is a former member of the Ohio Board of Regents, the state's public higher education governing board. He also worked with college students at The Ohio State University's College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He also supported many community organizations, including the Heart Fund, Ohio Society for the Prevention of Blindness, Arthritis Foundation and Easter Seals.
In 2005, Evans was honored by FAO as an inaugural "I'm a Child of Appalachia" honoree for his philanthropic efforts, entrepreneurial success and support of improved access to higher education in the region. The "I'm a Child of Appalachia" campaign uses individual success stories to promote greater investment in the region to increase student access to post-secondary education.[1]
Death and burial
Bob Evans died in 2007 while being treated at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, of complications of a stroke. He was recuperating from pneumonia when he suffered the fatal attack.[2] Bob Evans was interred in a private ceremony on his farm in Rio Grande, Ohio.[3]
Upon learning of his death Ohio governor Ted Strickland remarked: "Bob Evans was a true original. His life's work was bringing the warmth, hospitality and good food of Ohio to rest of the nation. We here in Ohio are all proud of him and we are all deeply saddened by his passing." [4]
Bob Evans Farm
Bob Evans, founder of the company, lived on the Bob Evans Farm in Bidwell in southeastern Ohio for nearly 20 years. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the home of the Homestead museum about Evans and his company.
References
- ^ I'm a Child of Appalachia
- ^ Angel Jennings, Bob Evans, 89, Restaurateur With Chain Built on Sausage, Dies, The New York Times, June 22, 2007.
- ^ Randy Yohe. "Bob Evans' Funeral". WSAZ.com. http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/8194607.html. Retrieved 2007-06-26.
- ^ Bizjournals.com