Evarts, Michael S.

Michael S. Evarts

Concord, Ohio

Feather Location: Row O, #09

By Brandon C. Baker / BBaker@News-Herald.com                                                

…“We’ve come together to mourn and to support one another in a great loss — there is no escaping that,” Pausche said. “I know I speak for countless people whose lives Mike has touched. I speak for the U.S. Army, for our country, for the community of St. Gabriel, for friends and people Mike has touched that you may never know. We give you our hearts, love, support and our prayers.” Evarts was, by all accounts, a dedicated family man, an outdoors and music enthusiast, and someone who liked telling and playing jokes. During one of the service’s few light moments, Col. Iva Griggs, interim commander of the 256th Combat Support Hospital in Twinsburg, told stories of how Evarts would purposely print out 300-page reports knowing he only needed one page. Continued...

She also told of a time he once happily attended training meetings in the fleece pajama pants he had traveled in because his luggage was missing. “He was actually the most comfortable person in the room,” Griggs said amid laughter. Griggs also recalled the admiration other soldiers had for Evarts. “Maj. Evarts was very well respected and loved by all that served with him,” she said. “He had a ready smile and a moment to spare to talk with anyone who stopped by ... He was always supportive, always up to the next challenge.”

Before communion and selections from the choir, Pausche discussed the memory boxes the Army provided for Zachary and Lukas. He encouraged family and friends to add to the boxes so that the boys would have even more memories of their father. “Those things never die. Only bodies die,”…

Carver: Teresa Staats, Retired executive from a utility company

Wood: Buckeye, donated by a landscaper in Dublin Ohio