Bob Evans (restaurateur)
Encyclopedia
Bob Evans was an American restaurateur and marketer of pork sausage products. He is perhaps best known for the American restaurant chain bearing his name
Bob Evans Restaurants
Bob Evans Farms, Inc. is a food service, processing, and retail company based in Columbus, Ohio. The company is named after its founder, Bob Evans . It operates two family dining restaurant chains in the United States, Bob Evans Restaurants and Mimi's Cafe...

. The company he founded also owns Mimi's Cafe and Owens Country Sausage.

Early life and career

Robert Banks "Bob" Evans born on May 30, 1918, to Elizabeth Lewis and Stanley L. Evans in Sugar Ridge, Ohio
Sugar Ridge, Ohio
Sugar Ridge is an unincorporated community in Wood County, Ohio, United States. It lies along Ohio State Route 25, north of Bowling Green and just west of Interstate 75. It is the birthplace of Bob Evans, the founder of Bob Evans Restaurants....

.The family moved to Gallia County in 1929, where young Bob and his two sisters could grow up in the company of their many aunts and uncles. Bob married Jewell Waters in June 1940. They moved to Gallipolis, where he bought a restaurant named the Malt Shop in the early 1940s. When Bob was inducted into the Army, he sold his interest in the restaurant to a friend.

Bob Evans Farms got its start when Evans began making sausage on his southeastern Ohio farm to serve at a 12-stool diner he owned in nearby Gallipolis in 1948. In the following years, Evans went into the sausage business. The building where he made the sausage was built with open ends, at the suggestion of his father, so it could be used as a machinery shed if the sausage business failed. In 1953, a group of friends and family recognized the growing demand for Bob's sausage and became his business partners by establishing Bob Evans Farms. The original Bob Evans Restaurant on the farm was called The Sausage Shop. Although it started with 12 stools, today the restaurant can seat 134.

Bob Evans Restaurants

In 1953, the business was incorporated as Bob Evans Farms Inc. By 1957, the company opened a total of four sausage plants to keep up with demand. In 1963, Bob Evans Farms Inc. was listed on the Nasdaq
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...

 stock exchange with an original issue of 160,000 shares.

In 1964, the company decided to expand into the restaurant business, which resulted in the founding of Bob Evans Restaurants
Bob Evans Restaurants
Bob Evans Farms, Inc. is a food service, processing, and retail company based in Columbus, Ohio. The company is named after its founder, Bob Evans . It operates two family dining restaurant chains in the United States, Bob Evans Restaurants and Mimi's Cafe...

. These restaurants were designed in a red and white color "Steamboat Victorian" style. The first of these "new" Bob Evans Restaurants was located in Chillicothe, Ohio
Chillicothe, Ohio
Chillicothe is a city in and the county seat of Ross County, Ohio, United States.Chillicothe was the first and third capital of Ohio and is located in southern Ohio along the Scioto River. The name comes from the Shawnee name Chalahgawtha, meaning "principal town", as it was a major settlement of...

, but by the early 1970s the restaurants had expanded throughout Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

. Expansion into other states was started in the late 1970s.

Evans served as a director and president of the company until his retirement on December 31, 1986. Evans died on June 21, 2007 at the age of 89. He was survived by his wife, Jewell, and their six children.

Accomplishments and community support

Although Evans retired from the company in 1986, he remained actively involved in his community and with numerous causes. Evans encouraged local farmers to use more efficient livestock grazing techniques that are better for the environment.

The only person in Ohio to be honored three times by the National Wildlife Federation
National Wildlife Federation
The National Wildlife Federation is the United States' largest private, nonprofit conservation education and advocacy organization, with over four million members and supporters, and 48 state and territorial affiliated organizations...

, Evans spent more than 40 years preserving wildlife. He also planted seeds for the future of the agricultural industry through his support of youth organizations such as 4-H and FFA and his involvement in higher education. He is a former member of the Ohio Board of Regents
Ohio Board of Regents
The Ohio Board of Regents is the coordinating board for higher education in Ohio. The board was created in 1963 by the Ohio General Assembly to: provide higher education policy advice to the Governor of Ohio and the Ohio General Assembly; develop a strategy involving Ohio's public and independent...

, the state's public higher education governing board. He also worked with college students at The Ohio State University's College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He also supported many community organizations, including the Heart Fund, Ohio Society for the Prevention of Blindness, Arthritis Foundation and Easter Seals
Easter Seals
Easter Seals is an international charitable organization devoted to providing opportunities for children with physical disabilities. See*Easter Seals *Easter Seals *Easter Seals...

.

In 2005, Evans was honored by FAO as an inaugural "I'm a Child of Appalachia" honoree for his philanthropic efforts, entrepreneurial success and support of improved access to higher education in the region. The "I'm a Child of Appalachia" campaign uses individual success stories to promote greater investment in the region to increase student access to post-secondary education.

Death and burial

Bob Evans died in 2007 while being treated at the Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic
The Cleveland Clinic is a multispecialty academic medical center located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The Cleveland Clinic is currently regarded as one of the top 4 hospitals in the United States as rated by U.S. News & World Report...

 in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

, of complications of a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

. He was recuperating from pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

 when he suffered the fatal attack. Bob Evans was interred in a private ceremony on his farm in Rio Grande, Ohio.

Upon learning of his death Ohio governor Ted Strickland
Ted Strickland
Theodore "Ted" Strickland was the 68th Governor of Ohio, serving from 2007 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the United States House of Representatives, representing ....

 remarked: "Bob Evans was a true original. His life's work was bringing the warmth, hospitality and good food of Ohio to rest of the nation. We here in Ohio are all proud of him and we are all deeply saddened by his passing."

Bob Evans Farm

Bob Evans, founder of the company, lived on the Bob Evans Farm in Bidwell in southeastern Ohio for nearly 20 years. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

and is the home of the Homestead museum about Evans and his company.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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