Darrell E. Evans

Darrell's story

Darrell Eugene Evans was born on October 14, 1949. He shared a birthday with then President Dwight David Eisenhower, and always cherished the birthday card he got from the White House.

As a kid he wanted to be a cowboy. From junior high onward, though, science fiction and outer space captured his imagination. He read everything Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein ever wrote, and eventually set his sights on becoming an astrophysicist. Darrell was a true “brainiac”. In 8th grade he rejected a chance to join MENSA because he thought he spotted a grammatical error in their promotional leaflet.

High school centered on playing sax in the Patrick Henry marching band and the Cootie Bum Band. Those were the days of huge Aquatennial parades and band competitions, with Patrick Henry and North High always in the lead. Nothing says mid-summer like dancing while playing the Hawaiian War Chant wearing a thick wool jacket and slacks, a tall furry hat, and white bucks!

Darrell graduated from Henry in 1967. At age 19, as the Vietnam war escalated and the draft lottery came back, he enlisted in the Navy, along with the other big brothers in the neighborhood. He signed on for six years for the chance to serve on a nuclear submarine. He was assigned to the USS Aspro, which was a source of great pride. His service took him to Hawaii, Japan, and briefly into the combat zone. During those years he acquired a hefty motorcycle, and enjoyed cruising the oceanside highways.

Upon discharge, he enrolled at the U of MN and majored in computer science. He emerged into the professional world at the height of the dotcom boom. He worked for two software companies, and was laid off from both of them in turn as the boom became a bust.

There were some years of financial struggle, which led him to turn to the “family business”—driving. His dad drove a Jefferson bus for 40 years, and cars and driving were always major interests in the neighborhood. Darrell got his CDL training and license driving school buses, and then signed on with Metro Transit to become a city bus driver. Ten years with that good union job provided him with a decent pension, and he was able to retire in 2018.

Finding himself with leisure time and an adequate income, Darrell turned back to his early passions: science fiction, outer space, and computer programming, and music. Growing up, he’d had the whole upstairs of the house to himself, lined with bookshelves and equipped with a good stereo. In retirement, he returned to that comfort zone, living among his hundreds of books, a major collection of movies on DVD, and vinyl albums of all the music he’d loved from the 1960s and 70s. He was busy refining the quality of his audio system, at the same time working to build his own desktop computer. He never lost his lifelong voracious intellectual hunger.

Darrell also took up a new pursuit: teaching himself to cook healthy at home, and kick his habit of drive-through food. He had an impressive array of professional cookware and tools, and was studying the likes of Jacques Pepin and Julia Child. To the end, his mind was active and he was making plans.

Darrell is predeceased by his parents, Bruce and Marian. He is survived by his sister, Barbara VanDrasek, a large extended family, and many old friends.

As a veteran, Darrell will be interred at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery, where his dad, uncle, and cousins rest.

memorial service

Funeral Service

September 24, 2021

Gethsemane Lutheran Church 4656 N Colfax Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55412, USA

A funeral service was held on Sept. 24 at Gethsemane Lutheran Church in North Minneapolis.