Presented with permission of Pioneer Press

Evers, Edward Albert (Died on 4 Apr 1954) Obituary appeared in Wilmette Life, 8 Apr 1954, page 73

Funeral services for Rear Adm. Edward Albert Evers, USNR (Ret.), resident of Wilmette for 40 years until 1945 will be held today (Thursday) at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, near San Diego, Calif., with interment there. Admiral Evers, who was 75 years old, died on Sunday in Los Angeles.

He was prominently associated with Naval Reserve activities in Chicago for 43 years.

He began his Naval career as a seaman, enlisting in the Illinois Naval Militia in 1897. He went on active duty with the Navy in the following year, during the Spanish-American War, and served aboard the U.S.S. Indiana, participating in the Battle of Santiago in which the Spanish fleet was destroyed. He was a member of the pulling boat crew which rescued Admiral Cervera from the burning Spanish flagship.

After that war he was discharged from the Navy and rejoined the state Naval Militia, being commissioned an ensign in 1901 and a lieutenant two years later. He became executive officer of the Naval Militia with the rank of commander in 1909 and two years later become commanding officer with the rank of captain.

During World War I he served as commanding officer of Grant Park Camp which trained men for duty on converted yachts and submarine chasers, and later commanding officer of the Officers' Material School. He was also in charge of remodeling and fitting out seven steamships taken over by the Navy and of the construction of 40 coal barges.

After the war he became commanding officer of the U.S. Naval Reserve for the State of Illinois and commander of the Navy's Great Lakes Training Squadron.

His flagship was the U.S.S. Wilmette, the former passenger vessel, S.S. Eastland, which had capsized in the Chicago River. The ship was purchased by the Navy and converted into a training craft, and was used for 25 years in instruction of thousands of Naval Reserve men. During World War II it was used to train armed guard crews.

Captain Evers was promoted to the rank of rear admiral in 1941 and was retired in 1942, after completing the World War II mobilization of Chicago Naval Reserve Division.

He was a member of the original commission for the development of Chicago's lake front and was instrumental in having the State of Illinois construct the Naval Armory at the foot of Randolph Street. He was the first president of the Naval Reserve Officers' Association and was founder and commander of the Chicago Naval Post of the American Legion.

He is survived by his widow, Florence; by three daughters, Miss Marjorie Evers, Glencoe, Mrs. Willard Thompson, Los Angeles, and Mrs. Glen C. Adams, Fairfield, Wash.; by three brothers, John of Highland Park, Arthur J. of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Frank R., San Diego; and by two sisters, Mrs. M. R. Hawkinson, Chicago, and Mrs. E.R. Mason, Stamford, Conn.

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