by Mike Matzinger
Daniel J. Evans (1925–2024) was a three-term governor of Washington State, U.S. senator, conservationist, and lifelong Scout whose life embodied service and integrity. His passion for public service was shaped early through Scouting: he became an Eagle Scout, worked as staff and Hike Master at Camp Parsons on Hood Canal, and led treks into the Olympic Mountains, including Mount Deception. These formative experiences inspired his lifelong commitment to wilderness preservation.
Evans served as a U.S. Navy lieutenant during World War II and again during the Korean War before beginning his political career in 1957 in the Washington House of Representatives. In 1964, at just thirty-nine, he was elected governor of Washington, becoming one of the youngest in the state’s history and the only one to serve three consecutive terms. As governor, he championed public education with the creation of the state’s community college system and The Evergreen State College. He also became a national leader in environmental policy, establishing Washington’s Department of Ecology, which helped inspire the founding of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
After leaving the governorship, Evans served as president of The Evergreen State College and, in 1983, was appointed to the U.S. Senate following the death of Henry “Scoop” Jackson. He won a special election later that year and served until 1989, continuing his advocacy for conservation. He was instrumental in expanding protections for Olympic National Park, with nearly 95 percent of its lands ultimately designated wilderness. In recognition of his work, the Olympic Wilderness was renamed the Daniel J. Evans Wilderness in 2017. At age ninety-one, he returned to Hurricane Ridge with his family and retraced his Boy Scout hikes into the Royal Basin, more than seventy years after his first journeys there.