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Evans Finds Home on the Range
Richard Evans '65 was a long way from the astrophysics lab at NASA when an F-16 crashed on his Double V Ranch in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, a sleepy little town known mostly as the setting for the Lonesome Dove miniseries.
The F-16 fighter pilot, on a practice mission from Cannon Air Force Base, survived the crash because he bailed just two seconds before his plane went down at 500 mph on Evans' land. Lying 120 yards from the wrecked plane, the pilot remained conscious, counting his blessings for over an hour until help arrived. When Evans, who turned from rocket science to optic lenses, and from timber to cattle ranching in four distinctive career moves, counts his blessings, the wide open spaces are at the top of his list. Shortly after he bought the neighboring ranch, another F-16 crashed. "I guess that's how they welcome you out here," he remarks dryly.
Since his boyhood, Evans has been fascinated by the West. Having watched the rerun of the movie Giant at the Chester Theater in 1963, Evans saw the challenge of making a living on the Texas plains. He fulfilled a lifelong dream during the summer of 1987 when he and a friend aimed a pickup truck toward New Mexico. Returning to the "Land of Enchantment" every year, Evans finally put down roots in 1998 and bought the Double V Ranch. The insignia stands for Vivacious Victoria; it is a tribute to Evans' wife of 35 years.
In his first incarnation as a physicist, Evans was a scientist in ionospheric physics at the Naval Research Lab in Greenbelt, MD. After putting in a few years at NASA as a rocket scientist in charge of the solar power lab systems on several satellites, Evans spent several more years developing explosive compositions, earning patents on some.
Proving that a liberal arts and sciences education prepares students for just about anything, Evans changed careers not once, not twice, but three times. After leaving NASA, he launched his own business, a lens manufacturing facility in Oakland, MD, that produced corrective eyewear, most notably for Bausch and Lomb. This job permitted Evans to enjoy the great out-of-doors in Appalachia. He began purchasing land--acres of Appalachian timber that was highly saleable.
"I quit the lens operation and bought a sawmill business, which I ran for 22 years," says the cattleman.
Evans partnered with a large American paper company, Adonis Forest Products, Inc. of Jacksonburg, WV, and purchased 35% of the company. He helped run their wood business in Guatemala. With his knowledge of the hardwood lumber business in the U.S., he soon became a partner. When the company lost its license for pine lumber, Evans changed the business over to hardwoods for export to the U.S. and Europe. Of that part of his life Evans says, "It's amazing how fast a timber-man can forget about the 10-foot diameter trees all around him when he finds gold in the creek he's standing in."
He gave it all up for a new challenge--and the call of the wild. Life for Evans now means getting up at dawn and managing two ranches, which combined are larger than Kent County. Twenty-eight miles end-to-end, the Double V Ranch supports five full-time ranch workers, 40 windmills, and several thousand head of cattle. There's even a restored Western saloon on the ranch. More importantly, the ranch provides Evans and his wife with all the wild-west adventure they need. A wild range fire early this year burned about 40,000 acres in four or five hours. Burning 6,000 acres of a neighboring ranch, it stopped just before it got to Evans' property.
Coyotes, baring their teeth, have come on the Double V during winter searching for food and pinning down ranch dogs. Evans and his ranch hands always carry rifles in their trucks in case they spot their animals in trouble.
"Life for us," says Evans, "is much as it was 100 years ago except that we use propane torches instead of mesquite fires to heat the branding irons."
Still, he takes pride in the liberal arts and sciences ideals that enabled him to be as comfortable in his cowboy boots as he was in his research laboratory. "It is a joy to me to have a conversation that can range from quantum physics to religion and ethics, from ancient history to current business and financial practices."
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