Named one of the 10 outstanding governors of the 20th century, Daniel J. Evans, ’48, ’49, has also served his state as a legislator, U.S. senator and college president. Along the way, he has always held a special place in his heart for his alma mater—a loyalty that began when he sneaked over the fence during football games in the 1930s. Now stepping down after two terms as a UW regent, Evans reflects on his many UW connections in this interview with Neil McReynolds, ’56, an award-winning newspaper editor, Evans’ former press secretary, and a long-time business and civic leader in the Seattle area.

What was your first involvement with the University?
I grew up close to the University. My first association was going over on a Saturday morning early and climbing a tree that was right next to the fence by the open end of the stadium. And we’d all climb the tree and all at once drop inside and scatter like a bunch of quail while the guys guarding the fence made a half-hearted attempt to get us.

Did you consider any schools other than the University of Washington?
No, I didn’t. When it came time to go to the University, it was during the war. I graduated in February of 1943 from [Seattle’s] Roosevelt High School. At 18 you got drafted. Another fellow who lived on the same street and I signed up for the V-12 program, which was the naval officer training program. My first duty station was the UW. I graduated from Roosevelt on a Friday and started at the University the next Monday.

To many people, it is hard to imagine a person who has been so successful as a politician whose education was engineering. What made you choose engineering?
I was always good at math and science and physics. My father was an engineer, and I admired him very much. He served for 13 years as King County engineer. He was a graduate of the UW Department of Civil Engineering in 1917. And then, when I went into the Navy, there was no choice. You took about half of the hours during your naval training as naval courses and the other half were engineering.

Did you get your start in politics on campus?
No, no, I really didn’t. I only stayed at the University for eight months and then I got transferred to the Naval ROTC program at Berkeley. I received my commission as an ensign in June 1945 and spent the next year on aircraft carriers in the Pacific. I stayed in the Navy until July of 1946. Then I came back and restarted at the UW that fall.

So when did you finish up your degree?
I didn’t take very much part in activities on campus at that time. I think, like a lot of other people who have been in the service, you’d been delayed in what you were doing. You wanted to catch up and the best way to catch up was to move as fast as you could toward a degree. I did graduate with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1948. But I decided I wanted more education and I had to make a choice between starting law school, which was interesting to me, and going for a graduate degree in engineering. I think I finally chose the graduate degree in engineering primarily because it only took one year and law school took three years, and I felt the pressure of being a little behind—although I was just 22.

Your next involvement with the UW was working in the Legislature. How did that happen?
I got called back into the Navy during the Korean War. I really got to a point where I thought maybe I would want to be involved politically. I wrote a letter to my father and went on to really berate what was going on nationally. We couldn’t win and we were engaged in the stalemate in Korea and all of that sort of thing, and all of that angst of a young naval officer. And I said in that letter, “If I were only back in Seattle, I would run for the Legislature.” I wrote the letter and sent it off and totally forgot about it. My father put it away in a little box he kept on the top of his dresser and didn’t show it to me until after I became governor.

Tell me about your first election.
When I came back from Korea, I got back into engineering design, but also volunteered to work for the Republican Party. I went to work on organizing the 43rd Legislative District … In 1956, Mort Frayn, who had been speaker of the house and lived in that district, retired. So there was an opening. … Not only did I win the contested primary and general election, but I ran ahead of the other incumbent, so it was a great start politically.

What were the issues in Olympia that impacted the UW in those days?
We were just at the end of what had been a rather tough kind of thing for the University of Washington and that was when they got into the loyalty oaths, and they had several University professors who were fired (see “Seeing Red,” Dec. 1997).

Web Special: Full text of interview between Gov. Dan Evans and Neil McReynolds