Bob Evans

Bob was born 30 May, 1918, in Sugar Ridge, Wood County, Ohio. Due to family hardships, Bob attended four different first grades in his first year of grammar school and as a result, he never learned to read well and he'd be the first one to tell you. However, that never stopped Bob. By 1937, he graduated from Greenbriar Military School in Greenbriar, WV, with honors in Arithmetic, Geometry and the prestigious Rifle Team. He was later conferred a member of the Greenbriar Hall of Fame. From 1937 - 1939, Bob attended the Ohio State University School of Veterinary Medicine; forced to withdraw due to chronic migraine headaches. In 1940  he opened a small Malt Shoppe in downtown Gallipolis which he operated until he was called in to the U.S. Army to serve his Country in 1943. He was honorably discharged in 1945.

At this time he opened the ten stool Steak House with Herb Bush and in the same year began making sausage for distribution. He worked nearly all the time, finding only a little time here and there to fish, hunt (his passions) or look for a farm to purchase. In 1952, Bob purchased the old Niamiah Woods Farm from Rio Grande College. This farm would later become the now famous Bob Evans Farms. It was during the 1960's that Bob served extensively as director on the Ohio and American Quarter Horse Assn. Board. He also found time to plant more than 200,000 trees and shrubs, providing wildlife habitat on his newly acquired farm. Bob is the only man in the State of Ohio to be honored three times by the National Wildlife Federation. He was honored with the "Bald Eagle Award", the highest conservation award in Ohio, by the League of Ohio Sportsmen. He is the only Lifetime member of the 4-H Organization and is also a 4-H Hall of Fame Member. Bob is well known for his 4-H Colt Giveaway Program which gives forty four colts per year to deserving 4-Hers. He is known for his annual 4-H competitive trail rides and for helping to save the Spanish Barb Mustang as he brought a small herd of Medicine Hat mustangs from N. Mexico and Utah to Bob Evans Farms in 1972 where they flourished and thrived. He became the first president of the Spanish Barb Mustang Breeders Assn. In 1977 he was appointed to the Ohio Board of Regents where he served thirteen years. In 1978 he received the Governor's Award and later was inducted into the Central Ohio Business Hall of Fame.
His most enduring legacy, the Ohio Appalachian Center for Higher Education, OACHE, established by Bob through the Board of Regents in 1993 and centered at Shawnee State University, Portsmouth, which gives assistance to twenty-nine Ohio and WV Counties. The OACHE places emphasis on "access to opportunity" and promotes higher education to both youth and adults. His passion had been his devotion to encourage more and more Appalachian residents and especially Ohioans to go to college and to lead students out of poverty and into a better quality of life. Other memberships include the Morning Dawn Lodge, 7, Gallipolis, a 32nd Degree Mason, Scottish Rite Valley of Columbus, a 33rd Degree Mason, Gallipolis Shrine Club.

- See more at: 

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dispatch/obituary.aspx?n=robert-le... -

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/22/business/22evans.html?_r=0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Evans_%28restaurateur%29