 "Photo: Morgan Crutchfield /Echo staff photographer")
After 40 years at N.C. Central University, associate professor Thomas Evans has decided it's time to start heading toward the exit in a process called "phased retirement."
Evans arrived at N.C. Central University as a teaching intern in 1969.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated less than a year earlier. The Fair Housing Act had just passed, and the Vietnam War was raging.
"Students used to be more socially involved in the past," said Evans, adding that he'd like to see that kind of activism again.
Evans said that one of his most unforgettable memories was when students marched to protest the King shooting. "They walked through the halls chanting ‘Ungawa, ungawa, we've got the power,'" he said.
When Evans started teaching, the Farrison-Newton Communications Building didn't exist. The Campus Echo was housed in the Alfonso Elder Student Union, and the English department was located in the Edmonds Classroom Building. The student body was about one third the size it is today.
In phased retirement, Evans will teach two years half-time and then pass the torch.
He said he decided to retire because he couldn't put as much energy into his work as he would like.
"In the early days Dr. Evans was just the anchor," said former English and mass communication department chair Louise Maynor.
"He has been an academic leader and a strong advocate for students."
Over the years Evans has taught more than 15 classes in English, mass communication and philosophy. He was the first to teach film criticism at NCCU.
Evans estimates he has taught more than 4,000 students and advised more than 500 students at NCCU.
"He is one of the hardest working faculty members in our department," said Michele Ware, chair of the department of English and mass communication.
"The thing that I admire the most about him is that he is always willing to advise students."
Evans also played an important role in the development of the mass communication department.
In 1979, Evans established the media-journalism concentration with Thomas Scheft, a professor in the School of Education, and Andrew "Mac" Secrest. Secrest, a well-known Southern liberal newspaper editor who taught at NCCU for several years.
That same year, Secrest and Evans established the first computerized newsroom in the Southeast.
Evans said he was the tech guy for the newsroom and he taught everyone how to use typesetting equipment.
"I don't care what the subject is, Evans knows about it. He is a knowledgeable dude," said Scheft.
Evans said he wanted to teach at NCCU to help first-generation college students reach their potential. He said that many of his early students came from segregated high schools.
"I thought it would be a more socially useful job to teach at NCCU," Evans said.
And socially useful he's been. Former students include Shelvia Dancy, a reporter with Fox News in Memphis, J. Michael Falgoust, a sports reporter with USA Today, and Ernie Suggs, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
During his 42 years of service with NCCU, Evans has earned 15 annual merit awards for teaching.
He received the College of Liberal Arts Service Award in 2009.
He has published articles in philosophy, education and technology, Irish and American literature, and film studies.
Evans also has advised the Campus Echo, the Ex Umbra and the University yearbook.
He is rich with University history and little-known facts.
Asked how he remembers all these details about NCCU he chuckled and smiled: "I just do."
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