He recalls with pride a basketball team of which he was a member, the high school team of 1916. Lacking a gymnasium, this team played in the building now occupied by the El Paso Produce Company on Front Street, with the spectators all seated at one end of the playing floor because of lack of space, with chicken wire backstop and wall allowing them to see the game. Evans also played on the high school's football team in 1916 and 1917, and with Sidney P. (Perry) Kingdon won the county tennis doubles title.
For his advanced education, George Evans attended the University of Illinois and the University of Iowa, being graduated from the former. His present home is in DeKalb.
Mack Evans
This professional organist, choral director and vocal coach is the son of the late L. K. Evans, former El Paso banker and worker in the Baptist Church. At an early age Mack displayed an unusual interest in music and it was decided that this should be his vocation. He attended Knox College at Galesburg, Illinois; received his master's degree at Harvard University, and later was awarded an honorary doctor's degree in music from Knox. In 1917 Mack demonstrated his skill as an accomplished organist when he played first High Mass for Christmas midnight services at Camiers, Pas-de-Calais, France, where he had served for a year overseas in the American Expeditionary Force. In 1921 he directed Thurlow Lieurance's Little Symphony Orchestra in the Canadian Rockies circuit, and for two years, 1923-1925, he was organist and choirmaster at Christ Church, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a theatre organist in both Chicago and Boston periodically for four years.
Although not a Catholic, Mr. Evans in 1931 paid a visit to Solesmes Benedictine Abbey in France, for Gregorian services and consultation work in musical literature. He was also invited back to Camiers, France, as guest organist for High Mass. From 1925 to 1945 this gifted musician served as director of music on the faculty at the University of Chicago, contributing greatly to the cause of musical advancement and appreciation in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. Working with Father Hoover of the Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, Mack distinguished himself for certain liturgical and dramatic performances. He helped translate medieval mystery plays from manuscripts of Limoges and Rouen Cathedrals, and in 1941, while a guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he found time for editing and translating the American edition of the "Requiem" by Faure.
In 1945 Mack Evans attracted the attention of Fred Waring's orchestra in New York City, where he was editing assistant to Robert Shaw of City Center Theatre and Carnegie Hall. Evans was back in France in 1945 and 1946, where, laboring on the American University faculty, he directed G. I. choruses in performances at Biarritz Casino, Theatre Royal. He was chairman of the concerts committee engaging French
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