Members of the 1963 state champion basketball team gathered at a reunion five years ago. From left are George Merrill, Bob Francoeur, Dean Evans, Ron Boothby, Walter Ridlon, Steve Watts and Ken Knapton.

GORHAM — The town will say final goodbyes next week to an educator and high school sports legend.

Dean Evans died at 86 on July 24. He was a longtime history teacher and coach at the high school in his hometown. He coached numerous basketball and cross-country teams to state championships.

He grew up in Gorham, was educated in the town’s schools and graduated from Gorham State Teachers College, a forerunner of the University of Southern Maine. A former town councilor and Planning Board member, he was an institution in Gorham.

“It won’t seem the same in Gorham,” said Susan (Weston) Sommers of Gorham, a member of the high school class of 1961.

Family, former students and players, educators and townspeople will gather to remember Evans  at 10 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 20, at a memorial service in the gym named in his honor at Gorham High School, 41 Morrill Ave.

“We are thrilled to be able to open GHS to his family to have the memorial service here,” Principal Brian Jandreau said.  “It’s truly an honor that they would want to have his service here where the gym is named after him.”

A former player, John Emerson, called Evans a local icon. Emerson played for Evans from 1965 to 1969. “He was one of those one or two – if you’re lucky – special teachers K-12 that have a lifetime lasting impact on you,” Emerson said.

Ken Knapton, now of Westbrook, recalled playing Little League as a 9-year-old with Evans as his coach. At that time, Evans was a college student and worked in his father’s gas station in Gorham Village.

“All the kids knew him,” Sommers said. “He was Dean.”

But when Evans was a student teacher at the old Campus School on School Street, “we had to call him Mr. Evans,” said Sommers, who was in fifth grade at the time.

Evans taught at the high school for more than three decades and coached basketball and cross country. He was athletic director 17 years.

As a basketball coach, he succeeded Edward “Packy” McFarland and the team in those days played in Robie Gym before a new high school and gym opened in 1959. The gym was named for Evans in 2001.

Knapton was a member of Evans’ team that won the state basketball title in the L Division in 1963. He never hollered at his players, Knapton said.

He said Evans taught his players well and they knew the plays. On game day, Knapton recalled Evans telling the team, “You guys know what to do.”

Emerson described Evans as a “great motivator, great instructor, positive influence and a wonderful person.”

Knapton didn’t remember anyone ever saying a bad word about Evans.

“He was a great individual,” he said.

Evans was named state Coach of the Year three times, according to his obituary, and once was honored as Athletic Director of the Year. The accolades included a photo and a mention in Sports Illustrated.

He was inducted into the Maine Running Hall of Fame, and Emerson participated in Evans’ induction ceremony. “A richly deserved honor,” Emerson said.

Evans enjoyed attending class reunions and Wilma (Gould) Johnson of Eliot recalled him and another former teacher, Elliott Tracy, attending the 50th for the class of 1962. She said Martha Harris had given them a list of names of the classmates who were there. “You could see them both scratching their heads trying to put names to the faces and just truly having a great time,”Johnson said.

Robert Lowell can be reached at 854-2577 or email rlowell@keepmecurrent.com.

Dean Evans coached the Gorham High School basketball team to the state title in 1963, shown here in this clipping from the Portland Press Herald.