Richard William Evans

Richard William Evans was born on January 20th, 1941.
When he was 18, he moved to New York and assisted in editing The Village Voice.
At the age of 21, he witnessed Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
After living in NYC for 6 years, he moved to Paris in 1966 and lived there for a year. In that year his passion and calling for art intensified.
He moved to San Francisco in 1967 and became entrenched in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.
In 1978, he formed the Stellar Arts Collective with Dick Jenkins, Janice Besser, Albert Marsh, Kim Hick, and Lou Galetti.
The collective applied and won a grant from the State of California to build “The Power of the Sun,” a stained large stained glass installation in the State of California office building in San Francisco.
The installation officially opened in 1980 and existed until 1991 when it was destroyed by protestors after California Governor Pete Wilson’s vetoed AB101, a bill that would have made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in employment.
In 1977 he met his life partner, Richard Beyer. They built a house together in the Zenia Bluffs and lived there until Richard Beyer died from AIDS-related complications in 1995.
He was the voice of “Candy the Condom” in the 1998 “Straight Talk About AIDS” public service series.
After moving to Eureka in 2006, he held positions on the Board of Directors of Redwood Community Action Agency and was instrumental in the development of Jefferson Park and Community Center.
He contributed consistently to the North Coast Journal’s Art Beat column.
Richard William Evans died on April 26th, 2023 in a medically assisted death. He was 82 year old.

Marcus Villagran interviewing Richard William Evans // Courtesy of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender (GLBT) Historical Society, San Francisco CA.

Area Scatter

Charlene Arcila