Walter Norton Evans

Church activities vied with business interests in claiming the attention and energies of Walter Norton Evans, who died on the 23d of October, 1896. He was born at Wolverhampton, England, in 1837, and after pursuing his education there, came as a young man to Canada. His father, Samuel Norton Evans, also a native of England, crossed the Atlantic to the American continent and spent the last years of his life in retirement in Guelph, Ontario. In business circles Walter N. Evans made for himself a creditable place. He became cashier of the firm of Frothingham & Workman, and was one of the executives of the Thomas Workman building. His identification with the above interests covered a period of nearly a third of a century. His name became a synonym for reliability as well as energy in business circles. Men came to know that they could depend upon him, that what he promised he would do and that he would improve his opportunities not only for his own benefit but for the welfare of those things in which he was concerned.

In 1864 Mr. Evans was married in Montreal to Miss Nora Hunter, a daughter of the Rev. Stephenson Hunter, a minister of the Unitarian church of England. They became parents of five children: Nevil Norton Evans, professor of chemistry in McGill University; Mabel Norton, who is Mrs. George. C. Wright, of Ottawa; Dr. Percy Norton Evans, professor of chemistry in Purdue University, at Lafayette, Indiana; Lillian Norton, the wife of Professor Henry Martyn MacKay, head of the civil engineering department at McGill University; and Miss Gladys Norton Evans, at home.

Mr. Evans was deeply interested in affairs of public moment, kept well informed concerning the claims of vital interest and gave his indorsement to many measures that are a matter of civic virtue and civic pride. For many years he was prominently and actively connected with the Unitarian church and for a long period served as superintendent of its Sunday school. High were the ideals which his life activities embodied and the name which he left to posterity is an honored one.