Jack Evans Recognized For Service to University

Posted on Jan. 19, 2005

For his accomplishments and dedication to colleagues and the University, John P. “Jack” Evans was honored Jan. 14 with the General Alumni Association’s Faculty Service Award.

Given annually since 1990, the award recognizes faculty members whose service has had a lasting impact on the University and the GAA.

Evans has been a member of the faculty of the Kenan-Flagler Business School for nearly 35 years. He was its dean from 1978 to 1987, during which time he presided over challenging decisions to protect the quality of education by cutting enrollment, to start a master’s of accounting program and to establish an executive MBA program. Twice since then, he has served as interim dean. Evans also served as the University’s interim vice chancellor for finance and administration for 16 months during the transition from the late Michael Hooker ’69 to the administration of James Moeser.

But perhaps the most telling time Evans spent in South Building was in the mid-1970s. Four years after his arrival at the business school, he was asked to lunch by Chancellor Ferebee Taylor ’42. Not long afterward, Taylor named Evans to one of two new special assistant positions.

“That three-year experience gave me the opportunity to meet people inside and outside the University and to develop an appreciation for the very special relationship that exists between this University and the people of this state,” Evans said. “I might have learned those things over a long period of time, but I wouldn’t have learned them so quickly or so deeply.”

Now the Phillip Hettleman professor of operations, technology and innovation management, Evans recently ended 15 years of volunteer service to the nation, holding nearly every job connected with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award – the award the president of the United States gives to outstanding businesses and educational and health care organizations.

Evans is Carolina’s faculty athletics representative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association and to the Atlantic Coast Conference. He serves on the NCAA Management Council, where he is helping to shape academic reforms.

He served as faculty representative to the GAA Board of Directors in 1999 and 2000. In 2002, he received the C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes unusual, meritorious or superior contributions by University staff. Most recently he chaired the search committee that selected Dan Reed as vice chancellor for information technology.

“Happily, Jack Evans simply cannot say ‘no’ whenever Carolina calls on him to provide much-needed service,” says GAA President Doug Dibbert ’70. “Wherever he serves and leads, Jack also inspires others with his relentless commitment to excellence and his faithful adherence to Carolina values.”

Recent winners of the GAA Faculty Service Award include education professor emerita Mary Turner Lane ’53 (MED), geography professor emeritus Doug Eyre, political science professor Thad Beyle; history professor emeritus William S. Powell ’40 and religious studies professor Ruel W. Tyson Jr., who also directs UNC’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities. A complete list of award winners can be found online.

---