Lewis C. Evans II '63

Lewis C. Evans II ‘63 departed us on January 31st, 2022 at the age of 80. Born in Suffolk County, NY, “Lew” graduated from Cornell in 1963 and was part of the 1st Varsity Crew that finished in the three-way tie with MIT and Navy at the 1962 Eastern Sprints in Worcester, MA. Lew and the 1963 crew returned to win the race outright the next year. He continued on to complete his law degree at Cornell in 1964 while coaching the Cornell Freshman Lights. He moved on to work for the law firm Sherman and Sterling in New York City. After working for several years, he returned to college to obtain his medical degree from Columbia University. He coached the Columbia Frosh lights while completing a cardiac fellowship at Presbyterian Hospital, NYC. He settled into a non-invasive cardiologist career at the Guthrie Clinic in Sayre, PA for 25 years and rowed nearly every day.

Lew’s true passion was rowing and his exceptional mental capacity made him an academic of the sport and a historian of the Cornell Crew across many decades. Even in his last days he rowed ‘on the water’ Dec 12 and on the erg on Jan 3rd in Gettysburg, PA. Since 2015, Lew visited the boathouse and crews every season and sometimes twice. He was a sincere presence for all in the boathouse and a friend of BMA.

Here is a quick caption from a boat mate of Lew:

“My deepest condolences for your loss. Lew was a great inspiration to Mabley, Neufeld, and myself who were lowly sophomores on the 1963 lightweight varsity, when he was a senior. I got to know Lew much better when for a while we rowed a pair together out of Potomac Boat Club, in 1967 I think, while he was in the Army JAG and me in the Marine Corps. We really weren’t big enough, at least I wasn’t, to be competitive in a pair, the boat wanted to stop between every stroke, and we didn’t have the power to get it going again, but we did well enough to stay out of Viet Nam. I don’t know whether Lew ever mentioned it, but we were invited up to Vesper Boat Club in Phillie for tryout of sorts for the Olympic team coached by Ted Nash — I don’t now remember much about it, but I do remember coming off a practice start in pairs and realizing that the humongous crew in the pair beside us was so powerful they were lifting their boat almost clear of the water on every stroke — talk about depressing; no amount of finesse on our part was going to make up for that kind of power, especially in those days when the long, low cadence stroke gave big guys a distinct advantage! I recently ran across a bronze medal that we won, maybe in the trials for the Pan Am games, though as I recall we were a distant third in that regatta, but great fun nonetheless.”

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