Robert Maxwell Evans was born and grew up in Los Angeles, CA and died after a lengthy illness in Carrollton GA. He grew up with his father Tom Evans and grandparents in their home in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. He graduated from Stanford University in 1956 with a degree in philosophy. He was president of his fraternity and co-captain of the baseball team as well as being active in the student Christian groups. He was active at Knox Presbyterian church growing up and, because of the influence of the Pastor, Art Rech, he decided to become a minister and attended Princeton Theological Seminary.

Upon receiving his M. Div at Seminary, he and his wife Abigail, also a seminary student, sailed immediately after their wedding in 1959 for Brazil to be missionaries of the Presbyterian Church USA. Their ministry was to foster small churches in Santa Catarina and Porto Alegre, and to pastor a small congregation in Chapeco. During his furlough, he completed his Doctorate in Theology. at the University of Basel, Switzerland, under Karl Barth.

His second assignment in Brazil was as a professor at Campinas Theological Seminary, but the military coup d’etat accompanied by an extreme ultra right leadership of the Brazilian Presbyterian church forced he and his family to flee Brazil in 1967 shortly after starting in Campinas.

Upon returning to the US he continued as a professor in several institutions: Pikeville College, KY, Union Theological Seminary, NYC, and Westminster Choir college, Princeton, NJ. A very popular professor, his students remember him with marvelous stories and fond memories. His passion for working with the marginalized of society never wavered. In the summers his sons joined him when he worked with TASK (a Trenton, NJ ministry with the homeless), with camps in San Luis, Colorado, and with Koinonia Farms in Americus, GA. Besides all his teaching, preaching etc., his passion was golf which he passed on to his sons and grandchildren. He was a great lover of music of many kinds, not only listening to works by a breadth of classical composers but also getting up and dancing to a variety of music from all over the world.

He is survived by his 4 sons Stephen Evans (Cheryl), Nathanael Evans (Mary), Matthew Evans (Kathy), and Thomas Evans (Wendy), as well as seven grandchildren, and five great grandchildren as well as his life partner Carol Gingerich and his former wife Abigail Rian Evans.

No services are being planned at this time.

Messages of condolences may be expressed to the family online at www.almonfuneralhome.com