Obituary: Gordon Evans

Gordon Evans passed away on the 67th anniversary of Alaska Statehood, Jan. 3, 2026. A celebration of life will be held at the Hangar Ballroom (formerly Yancy Derringer's) from 2-5 pm on Monday, March 30.

Gordon Evans

Gordon was born in 1932 to Ethel Mae Rogers and William John Evans in the Mexican border town of Douglas, Arizona. Raised in both Arizona and Missouri, including challenging stays in an orphans home and foster care, he graduated high school in Douglas at the age of 16 with a growing interest in the field of journalism, sparked by his work covering high school sports for the Douglas Daily Dispatch and as editor of the yearbook and the school newspaper.

After briefly studying railroad telegraphy in Chillicothe, Missouri, and spending the next year in El Paso, Texas, in advertising jobs, Gordon enrolled at Texas Western (now UTEP) to study journalism. During his freshman year, though, in the midst of the Korean War, he didn’t want to be at the mercy of the Army draft of 19-year-olds. Still 18, he enlisted in the US Navy.

After boot camp in San Diego, he was sent to Naval Journalism School in Illinois, where he found his favorite class was Naval History. At 19, he was given the choice of serving on the public information staff of four admirals in the Atlantic fleet or one in Kodiak. He chose Kodiak and began his 74-year Alaskan adventure in April 1952.

He edited the base newspaper, The Kodiak Bear, and became known for his photography on search-and-rescue missions. His duties included travel throughout Alaska, except Southeast Alaska.

Eighteen months later and having qualified for Journalist 2nd Class, the 21-year-old Gordon was transferred to the public information staff of the Pacific Air Fleet out of San Diego, and he started a six-month stint on the USS Essex in the west Pacific as the war wound down. This led to his first visit to Hawaii and a lot of Tokyo shore time, as well as visits to Hong Kong and the Philippines.

After six-week rotations on the aircraft carriers USS Oriskany, the new USS Yorktown, and the USS Bon Homme Richard, he was assigned to the USS Pine Island, which, as it turned out, didn’t need a journalist because it was a spy ship monitoring aerial surveillance flights over Russia and China. He worked in the war room but soon enough was promoted to Journalist 1st Class and transferred to the staff of Carrier Division One for six months aboard the USS Oriskany.

Upon returning to San Diego in spring 1955, Gordon resisted reenlistment offers because he wanted to go back to college at the University of Arizona. In the fall, he became a 23-year-old sophomore, having received credit for his studies at Texas Western and the Navy. Majoring in journalism, he worked at the Arizona Wildcat as a sportswriter and News Editor, and became Managing Editor midway through his junior year, and then Editor as a senior. In 2014, he was inducted into the Arizona Daily Wildcat Hall of Fame.

During the summer, he worked for the Tucson Citizen. This led to two post-graduate years with the Citizen as the night police beat reporter, followed by a move to the Bay Area in 1960 to work for United Press International. In December he was sent to cover the Montana legislative session, where he also covered high school sports. UPI promoted him to their Anchorage Bureau Manager in April 1961, with the understanding that he could be the Tucson Bureau Manager when the incumbent retired in two years.

He started to become more politically involved, by choice and because of the job. That’s how he met Bill Egan, Alaska’s first state governor. He also had some success in writing the story of a hiker rescued from being lost for 90 days near Fairbanks, and the story was printed in, among other places, The New York Times.

After covering the 1962 legislative session in Juneau, Gordon learned that UPI had hired someone else in Tucson, so he accepted an offer to become the managing editor for the Anchorage Daily News. He went back to Juneau for the 1964 legislative session, where in February he had a blind date with the Secretary of State’s executive secretary, a Stanford grad named Elizabeth Wyller. While they were at dinner a month later at The Baranof Hotel, he was paged about what they would soon learn was the 9.2 Great Alaska Earthquake. He, the Governor, and all of the legislators flew to Anchorage in the morning to fly over the damaged communities and land on a hastily patched airport runway. The printing presses of both of the daily newspapers were damaged, forcing them to fly earthquake stories to Fairbanks to be printed and flown back to Anchorage.

After a busy legislative season of earthquake relief efforts, Gordon and Elizabeth were both delegates to the 1964 Democratic State Convention in Fairbanks, and Gordon was selected as an alternate delegate to the national convention in Atlantic City, which he described as “an experience I’ll never forget.”

Back at home, he and Elizabeth became engaged, in anticipation of a December wedding.

Gordon decided to move to Juneau, expecting to take a job as Deputy Director of the Division of Tourism. However, four days before the wedding, Governor Egan called and asked if he wanted to be his Special Assistant. The answer was an immediate “Yes!” He functioned as a press secretary, speechwriter, coordinator of board appointments, and legislative liaison.

A year later their son Erik arrived, and they bought from Elizabeth’s parents the downtown house where she had been raised, and it became their forever home. They purchased a cabin on Lena Loop Road, 17 miles north of downtown Juneau. It became their summer place for 55 years. Their daughter Kari came along in 1974.

After Governor Egan lost his reelection bid, Gordon and the family headed to the University of Arizona Law School, with a temporary jack-of-all-trades Juneau Empire gig in between. He became managing editor of the Arizona Law Review, and earned his J.D. in 1970.

For the rest of his life he and Elizabeth lived in Juneau. After law school he clerked for Judge Tom Stewart and then he was a practicing lawyer and lobbyist for his entire career. He joined a law firm with Allan Engstrom in the old National Bank of Alaska building. Later he joined Ely, Guess, and Rudd located on the first floor of the Mendenhall Apartments. When Guess & Rudd eventually closed their Juneau offices, he carried on his practice while also managing the business suite, as well as the tenants of the Assembly Building a block away, of which he was part owner.

He was a delegate to the 1976 Democratic National Convention, while serving as chair of the state party. He was on the University of Alaska Board of Regents from 1983-1991, including a term as the board’s president, and was a member of the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education, the University of Alaska Foundation Board of Trustees, the Northwest Commission of Colleges and Universities, University of Alaska Southeast College of Fellows, UAS Juneau Campus Advisory Council, and the Juneau Airport Board. He loved the St Louis Cardinals (his favorite player was Stan Musial) and the University of Arizona sports teams, and never stopped talking about the 1997 national champion men's basketball team. The family enjoyed annual trips to Kihei, Hawaii, and frequent trips down south for shopping, specialty medical care, and Arizona reunions in Tucson and Seattle.

For his final years, he and Elizabeth shared a suite at the Juneau Pioneers Home, for whose care the family is grateful. Gordon passed away on the 67th anniversary of Alaska Statehood, Jan. 3, 2026. He is survived by Elizabeth, his children Erik and Kari (Ken) and his grandchild Helen. He was preceded in death by brothers Roger and Bob, and grandchild Rheid.

A celebration of life will be held at the Hangar Ballroom from 2-5 p.m. on Monday, March 30.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in his name to the Juneau Community Foundation Operating Fund.