Green River High School Student
2016 Inductee
Jack graduated from Green River High school in 1956 where he played football, participated in track, and served as student body president. Jack Evers has deep roots in Green River dating back to the 1870’s. A maternal great grandfather, Tom Whitmore, has the American Legion here named after him. Jack's maternal grandfather, Hugo Gaensslen came about 1890 and bought the brewery and completed the present Brewery building in 1900. His father, also Jack Evers, and his uncle, Bill Evers, came to build mine houses in Superior in 1908, moved the business to Rock Springs in 1911 and to Green River in 1913. Evers Brothers Construction (father and uncle) built the first Green River High School in 1922. His uncle, Bill Evers, was also mayor when the famous Green River Ordinance was passed.
After graduation, Jack enrolled at the Colorado School of Mines where he played varsity football, boxed, and wrestled on a club basis. He was a member of the 1958 RMFAC championship and Hall of Fame Football Team. He received a professional engineering degree in petroleum engineering in 1960 and went to work in Texas and Oklahoma for the Atlantic Company, later known as ARCO and Atlantic Richfield. After a few years which included an army stint, he went to work for Mountain Fuel Supply in Rock Springs as a petroleum engineer. A return to school resulted in a PhD from the University of Kansas in 1970 and a job as an assistant professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Wyoming where he advanced through the ranks to serve as department head from 1980 until 1986. In 1984, petroleum engineering was the largest undergraduate program at the University.
After his return to teaching, Dr. Evers retired in 1996 and spent ten years traveling the world to teach industrial courses in the US, Canada, Columbia, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Hungary, Abu Dahbi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Sudan, Libya, Trinidad-Tobago India, Hungary and Indonesia. He returned to the University of Wyoming in 2006 on a part time basis and earned the Outstanding Petroleum Engineering Teaching Award in 2008 and the Outstanding Undergraduate Engineering College Teaching Award before retiring in 2015.
Always a horseman and a competitor, Dr. Evers has spent his life in various horse related competitions starting with rodeo, both roping and bronc riding, horse showing, jumping competitions and finally endurance racing. At the age of 72, he received his third buckle in the Western States 100-mile race (AKA – Tevis Cup). This race was called one of the top ten endurance events in the world by Time Magazine and the toughest horse race in the world by Outside Magazine. Jack is approaching a 5000 mile race career.
To compliment his horse interest, Jack became a professional farrier (the first AFA certified journeyman farrier in Wyoming) and has served as farrier for the United States team at three world championships in Barcelona, Spain in 1992, Netherlands in 1994 and the US in 1996, as well as working for the mountain zone team at the Pan American Championships in 2003 and the North American Championships in 2005.
He has one daughter, Chia Evers, residing in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a foster son, Tom Eikbush, in Denver. Jack now resides on a ranch west of Laramie.
