John “Jack” Evers was born on April Fool’s Day 1938, in Topeka, Kansas; within weeks of his birth, he came home to Green River, where his family has deep roots, dating back to the 1870s.
A lifelong horseman, little Jackie got his first semi-wild pony at age six and rode it through the streets of town. At age seven, he lost his mother to cancer.
As a student at Green River High School, Jack played football, participated in track, and served as student body president. After graduation, in 1956, he enrolled at the Colorado School of Mines, where he played varsity football, boxed, and wrestled on a club basis. He was a member of the 1958 RMFAC championship and Hall of Fame Football Team. He received a professional engineering degree in petroleum engineering in 1960 and went to work in Texas and Oklahoma for the Atlantic Company, later known as ARCO and Atlantic Richfield.
After a brief stint in the US Army, Jack married the former Ann Wilkinson. Their marriage lasted 30 years, produced a daughter, Chia Lynn, and ended amicably. A return to school resulted in a PhD from the University of Kansas. In 1970, Jack became an assistant professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Wyoming, where he advanced through the ranks to serve as department head, 1980–1986.
Jack retired from UW (for the first time) in 1996 and spent 10 years traveling the world with his partner, Lydia Dambekalns, and teaching industrial courses. His travels included destinations in the US, Canada, Columbia, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Hungary, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Sudan, Libya, Trinidad-Tobago, India, Hungary, and Indonesia. He returned to UW in 2006 on a part-time basis and earned the Outstanding Petroleum Engineering Teaching Award in 2008 and the Outstanding Undergraduate Engineering College Teaching Award before retiring (again) in 2015.
Never content with only one career, Jack also became a professional farrier and the first AFA-certified journeyman farrier in Wyoming. He served as farrier for the United States team at three World Championships — in Barcelona, Spain in 1992, the Netherlands in 1994, and the US in 1996 — as well as working for the Mountain Zone team at the Pan American Championships in 2003 and the North American Championships in 2005.
In addition to his professional endeavors, Jack spent his life in various horse-related competitions, starting with rodeo — both roping and bronc riding; horseshowing; jumping and dressage competitions; and, finally, endurance racing. At the age of 72, he received his third buckle in the Western States 100-mile race, also known as the Tevis Cup. He logged nearly 5,000 race miles over the course of his endurance career, on his home-bred Arabian horses
Jack’s interests in retirement years remained broad: current world events, the Laramie Foreign Foods group, solving complicated math puzzles for fun, reading books about Wyoming, and Rising Moon Ranch work with Lydia.
In 2016, Jack was inducted into the Green River High School Hall of Fame. Much of this obituary was drawn, at his request, from the biography he prepared for that event.
Jack Evers passed away after a brief illness on September 1, 2026 in Laramie. He is survived by his partner Lydia Dambekalns, daughter Chia Evers, son-in-law Dan Novy, foster son Tom Eickbush, and daughter-in-law Mechelle Eickbush.
A celebration of life will be held in early November.
In lieu of flowers, donations in his honor may be made to any education- or animal-related charity of your choice.
