Hartford Seminary Mourns Passing of Bob Evans, Plowshares Institute Founder and Former Faculty Member

Services will be held Saturday, Feb. 3, at 11 a.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT 06107, officiated by the Rev. Jan Hawkins, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Hawkins and the Rev. Julie Emery. There will be a reception following the service at the church.

The Hartford Seminary community mourns the passing of the Rev. Dr. Robert Evans, known to almost everyone as "Bob," who passed away on Jan. 25, 2018.

A faculty member at Hartford Seminary in the 1970s and 80s, the Rev. Dr. Evans taught theology, especially as it related to the nature of the church/congregation and to leadership. He was involved in the design and teaching of the Doctor of Ministry and was an ordained Presbyterian minister.

More than 30 years ago, he left academia and founded Plowshares Institute in Simsbury, CT, with his wife, Alice. Plowshares cultivated global peace through mediation, case-based conflict transformation training, and intensive international travel seminars.

When Plowshares closed its doors in 2015, the organization bestowed several grants on Hartford Seminary as an extension of its peacemaking work. The grants supported six International Peacemaking Program (IPP) students from 2015-2018, and established an endowed fund for IPP enrichment.  The Rev. Dr. Evans and Alice Evans also taught conflict resolution to IPP students and for Hartford Seminary's flagship course, Dialogue in a World of Difference.

"Bob, through Plowshares, has been a source of inspiration and cooperation for hundreds of justice and dialogue-oriented projects, for many, many people here and all over the world for many decades," President Heidi Hadsell said. "Plowshares has also been an invaluable partner and a strong supporter of our International Peacemaking Program. I, along with many of you, will be among those who will deeply miss Bob as a friend and a mentor."

The Rev. Dr. Evans studied at the Universities of Yale, Edinburgh, Berlin and Basel, and received his doctorate from Union Seminary and Columbia University. He was a Senior Fellow in the Centre for Conflict Resolution at the University of Cape Town, South Africa; Senior Trainer for Empowering for Reconciliation and Peace, Indonesia; and Special Researcher for the Academy of Social Sciences, Nanjing, China.

He taught on the faculty of universities and seminaries in Uganda, Fiji, New York, Chicago and Hartford and served as a Presbyterian pastor in congregations in Oklahoma, Alabama, Illinois and Connecticut.

Services will be held Saturday, Feb. 3, at 11 a.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT 06107, officiated by the Rev. Jan Hawkins, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Hawkins and the Rev. Julie Emery. There will be a reception following the service at the church.