In memory of Hazel Oonah Park Evans

Hazel Oonah Park Evans was born June 9, 1897, the oldest of the four children of Dr. Edward Evans, a physician and surgeon, in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She grew up in a household where education was valued and all four Evans children became college graduates – which was unusual at the time. Hazel attended Northwestern University in Chicago, earning a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in English and history in 1920.

After graduation she was employed as a grade school teacher at a one-room country school in southern Wisconsin. While teaching she lived at the nearby Ralph Howard farm and there met Warren Howard, whom she married in 1921.

Hazel and Warren had four children, and in that household education was always stressed. It was always simply assumed by their mother that her children would go on to college after high school. The children were educated in a one-room country school, an education which apparently was successful because two of them, including son Richard Howard, went on to earn advanced university degrees. Richard’s daughter, Jessica Howard, became the 11th president of Chemeketa Community College in 2019.

In 1952, after her children were grown, Hazel returned to teaching, her first love, in Manchester, Illinois, and continued to teach there until her retirement in 1970.

In addition to her teaching duties she liked to sew and knit. She was also an accomplished pianist, and played the piano for Sunday church services at the local Methodist church for many years.

Hazel is remembered by her family and friends as a loving and supportive mother, and is greatly missed.