The needless death of our friend and colleague Erwin Evert has saddened us all. Plans are underway to devote an issue of Castilleja in his honor. Thus this note will be brief. Included is his obituary by Yolanda and Mara as well as photos. Information regarding his opus entitled “Vascular Plants of the Greater Yellowstone Area: Annotated Catalog and Atlas, 751 pages, is given under Books by RM Associates. It appeared within a month of the tragedy.
Erwin F. Evert, 70, suffered a fatal encounter with a grizzly bear Thursday, June 17, 2010, along Kitty Creek in the Shoshone National Forest.
Erwin Frank Charles Evert is a Chicago native born February 13, 1940. He was the oldest son of Erwin August Evert, deceased in 1987, and Dorothy Anne Evert deceased in 2002. He is survived by his wife Yolanda Evert and their only daughter Mara Evert Domingue and her husband John Domingue, one brother, Robert Lawrence (Margaret) Evert and one niece, Elizabeth Evert Deutcher (Christopher) and their two children.
Erwin attended Chicago schools and received his B.S. Degree from Roosevelt University and taught high school biology and chemistry at Senn.
Erwin’s passion for plant-life resulted in the 2010 publication of Vascular Plants of the Greater Yellowstone Area: An Annotated Catalog and Atlas. Erwin’s intensive Yellowstone Region collecting led to the discovery of five undescribed plants. In acknowledgment for his discoveries, Dr. Ron Hartman, curator of Rocky Mountain Herbarium, named the Evert Desert Parsley, Cympoterus evertii, after Erwin.
Memorial donations can be directed to Park County Wyoming Search and Rescue, Rocky Mountain Herbarium at the University of Wyoming, Laramie, or Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL.
Respecting his final wishes, no services will be held and he will be cremated.
I feel honored to have known this gentle man through his lovely daughter Mara. Please accept my heartfelt sympathies……Susan
I wish I had known this man; I bet we could have found plenty of things to talk about. So sorry for his untimely loss and the grief it has brought his family. May you all find healing and pleasant memories.
For a man to be able to pursue his passion in a setting such as Yellowstone must be as rewarding as it was tragic to have lost his life there. Hold onto the memories of his pursuit and find comfort in the journey that he was able to take. We offer our prayers for peace and comfort and our deepest sympathies.
[...] can get more details on this man at: http://uwlib5.uwyo.edu/blogs/rm_herbarium/2010/07/28/erwin-everts-death-publication-of-flora-greater... or from the fall 2010 CAstilleja, the newsletter of the Wyoming Native Plant Society [...]
It’s Springtime and thoughts of Mara’s daddy seem to be all around me in the plant life he loved so much. As Susan expressed so eloquently above, I, too, feel honored to know Erwin Evert through his lovely daughter. His love and light is so strong that it is everywhere, especially this time of year. Thank You, Mara, for sharing your daddy and Thank You, Erwin, for shining so brightly! We are all blessed by your presence on this earth and by the Light you shine.
I’m honored to have the opportunity to view many of the specimens Erwin Evert collected at the Morton Arboretum. Having read about this tradegy almost a year ago, I was rocked by the story. A current resident of the Chicagoland region and future resident of Wyoming, I am touched by his research, love of plants, and respectfully more aware of the risks this beautiful landscape and its explorers face.
Thank you