Roger James Evans

Roger James Evans died of congenital heart failure on August 5, 2026, at the age of 92. Known to his friends and family as “Jim”, he was born in Oxford, England on July 10, 1934. He spent most of his youth in Bath, England, except for the years during the war when he retreated to Wales with his mother and sister to escape the bombing. He graduated from King Edwards School in 1950 and pursued a Bachelor of Science at Birmingham University. In 1954 he won a Fulbright scholarship and had the privilege of studying for a master’s degree at Brown University in Rhode Island, USA. This is where the American bug bit him. He returned to England in 1956

to complete his compulsory military service, serving in the Airforce in Germany. As soon as he was able, he secured his return to the US, enrolling in a PHD program at UC Berkeley in California. While on a ski weekend at Lake Tahoe, Jim met the love of his life, Judith Ann Gilmer, an elementary school teacher. Jim and Judy were married shortly thereafter and began a rich life together. They lived briefly in Manhattan while Jim studied for his post-doctorate at Columbia University and Judy taught 2nd grade at a public school in the Bronx.

Jim and Judy eventually settled in Seattle, Washington where Jim took a position, sight unseen, as a professor of civil engineering at the University of Washington. They lived on Bainbridge Island where they raised two children, Christopher and Jocelyn, and followed their entrepreneurial whimsy by building the Harbour Marina and later the Harbour Public House, known to locals as the “Pub”. They retired in 1993, a year after opening the Pub, and spent many years residing in Honolulu, Hawaii. In their later years, Jim and Judy traveled the world, mostly by ship, train, bus and public transportation.

Jim was a lifelong learner and adventurer. He sailed, along with four crewmates, across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Spain in 1966 which sparked a passion for sailing. He owned several sailboats throughout his life, cruising the Salish Sea and the San Juan Islands. He had a knack for languages, speaking German and French and later, Japanese.

At the age of 69, he learned to paraglide, but he gave up when he crashed and tore his rotator cuff. He was politically active in the 1980s and 1990s which led him to gain his U.S. citizenship in 1990. He actively protested the arms race, starting an organization called American Engineers for Social Responsibility (AESR). He liked bicycles and motorcycles. He initially commuted by motorcycle from Bainbridge Island to the UW and then later transitioned to bicycle to reduce his emissions, before there were any other bicycles commuting on the ferry.

Jim was preceded in death by his father, Hywel Evans, his mother, Margaret Evans and his sister, Anne Gibbings. He leaves behind his wife, his son and daughter, his daughter-in-law, five grandchildren, and four great grandchildren