This fall semester, starting Aug. 26, will be the first time in 43 years Evans will not be at his desk in the Cline Library.
Little did they know how prescient that photo would be. NAU hired Evans 15 years later and he worked in the university’s library for more than four decades.
This fall semester, starting Aug. 26, will be the first time in 43 years Evans will not be at his desk in the Cline Library.
“I will miss it on one hand – miss what I did,” he said. “I always had great colleagues. I can’t think of many unpleasant encounters at the library.”
Over the years, Evans cycled through bosses.
“Everyone was my boss.” He joked that there’s a Facebook group for recovering Sean Evans’ bosses.
His last day on the job was April 26. It snowed for his retirement party on the patio at Mother Road Brewing. Fickle Flagstaff spring weather struck again.
Evans, 66, sat down recently with Flagstaff Business News to talk about how he migrated from Yonkers, New York, to Arizona, his career at NAU and his affinity for Route 66 history. An innate storyteller, he was relaxed, jovial and self-disparaging after a recent California trip with his wife, Karen.
“It must be dull people who do things for 43 years,” he said, although he is anything but boring.
Evans’ family made successive trips to Arizona starting in 1963, traveling on Route 66 and Interstate 40 as the freeway replaced section after section of the Mother Road.
“We were witnessing the end of Route 66,” he said. The interstate was completed through Flagstaff in 1968 and finally, in Williams in 1984.
Evans said his father, Robert, preferred the blue highways, the back roads described by author William Least Heat-Moon in his 1982 book Blue Highways.
The Evans family traveled in a sleek Chrysler Imperial with his mother, Jean, in the navigator seat up front and Sean riding in the back with his older sister.
How did Mr. Evans afford a luxury Chrysler Imperial?
“He bought ‘em used,” his son explained.
Robert Evans was an engineer at a sugar refinery in Yonkers. His mother, Jean, was, of all things, a librarian at a pharmaceutical company. Evans’ parents retired to Sedona in 1975.
Evans earned a bachelor’s degree in education at NAU in 1979 and a master’s degree in history two years later. He taught at a rural Arizona high school but lasted less than a year when the principal wanted him to coach wrestling.
His mother wanted him to get a law degree.
“I think my parents were vaguely disappointed I wanted to be a teacher.”
In the spring of 1981, NAU hired Evans as a Library Assistant III with an annual salary of $9,000.
Sean was assigned to do reference work in government documents. He learned the nuances of finding needles in haystacks from the massive publishing output of the U.S. government. That allowed him to assist students and faculty with their research.
Evans recalls a student he helped with research in the 1990s who came back in recent years to teach at NAU. “She told me I helped her along her career path. For me, that’s what makes NAU so darn cool,” he said, noting that the university is not so big that it is still possible to have those direct connections with students, staff and faculty.
In the late ‘90s, Evans was encouraged to get his master’s degree in library science, which he completed at the University of Arizona in 2000. That same year, he moved to Cline Library’s Special Collections and Archives, where he worked for 24 years.
“Sean was also a talented instructor,” said Peter Runge, head of Special Collections. “He had a gift connecting undergraduate and graduate students to the historical treasures. Faculty and students alike would frequently share their overwhelming positive experiences with Sean and the archives.”
Range worked with Evans for nearly 20 years of his 43-year tenure at NAU’s Cline Library. “I came to understand the depth and breadth of Sean’s institutional knowledge and his passion for Route 66.”
As a result of that passion, the National Park Service designated Cline Library as the repository for the history of Route 66 in Arizona.
Of course, NAU has changed markedly since Evans started working in the library. A 1992 expansion doubled the size of the library to 192,000 square feet, with 1.5 million books. Enrollment has more than doubled to over 28,000 students.
The digital revolution brought dynamic changes to the NAU library, starting in 1991, when the card catalogs were digitized. Those index cards were simply recycled as notepads, Evans said.
Snow days are more common now. Evans joked that decades ago NAU’s “snow dean” drove a half-track and figured if he could make it to campus during a blizzard then everyone else could.
Evans never expected to stay in Flagstaff and at NAU for so long. “My wife and I decided in 1981 we were going to give this little ‘berg five years and then move someplace real,” he said.
They are still here.
“I’m a low risk-taker and Flagstaff is a great town,” he said. “It’s a great place to live.”
Evans’ wife, Karen, a longtime nurse at Flagstaff Medical Center, retired eight years ago.
Evans was motivated to retire last fall after he was severely afflicted with COVID-19, even though he had all his vaccine shots.
“Now I have time to get the weeds out of the front yard,” he said. And more time to read.
Evans will also stay involved as a board member of the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona. The group will have a key role in plans for celebrating the Route 66 Centennial in 2026.
NAU will miss Evans, Runge said.
“Anyone who knows Sean will quickly mention his quick wit and ability to turn a phrase,” he said. “I can safely speak for Special Collections and Archives, Cline Library, and the broader research public when I say we all miss Sean’s presence and knowledge, but we’re equally thrilled that he’s enjoying life after NAU.” FBN
By Bonnie Stevens, FBN
Photo by Peter Corbett: He found his calling assisting students and faculty with research at the library for four decades.
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