Evans has dedicated his life to serving his community and his country
Howard “Bud” Evans is Cinnaminson’s newest councilmember. Evans was sworn in at the reorganization meeting after running unopposed in November’s election.
Evans has an impressive history of service, including 29 years with the armed forces, which is why he wanted to run for township committee.
“Every time I go some place, every time I’ve been transferred or moved to a different location, I’ve always been involved in some sort of community service,” Evans said.
Evans grew up in Philadelphia and moved to Cinnaminson from Limerick, Pa., in 2014. Evans has family in Cinnaminson, a driving force in his decision to move here. He says the “blue collar mentality” is another thing that drove him to Cinnaminson.
“Everybody here works together to progress within themselves. Everybody is pretty reasonable,” Evans said. “I haven’t run into a person yet who is stuffy or conceited or thinks they’re better than others.”
When he graduated high school in 1987, Evans had no expectation he would ever get into college — let alone be able to afford it — so he joined the U.S. Air Force. When he left active duty three years later due to budget cuts, he joined the Pennsylvania National Guard.
In 1993, Evans was hired by the Radnor Township Police Department in Pennsylvania. Three years later, he went back to the Air National Guard to serve as an air guardsman and a police officer.
In 2004, Evans left the police department and returned to active duty. He was deployed in both 2007 and 2013 and served in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Evans earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Cabrini University and a master’s degree in business administration from the Pennsylvania State University. While in school, he remained dedicated to serving his community. In addition to being involved with his local senior program, Evans also coached and officiated ice hockey for approximately 20 years.
Evans is the chief of standards and evaluation for the 111th Operations Group as well as the commissioner for the Burlington County Library.
Despite running unopposed, Evans threw himself into the election. He dedicated much of his time to visiting homes and making phone calls so residents didn’t feel as though they were voting for a stranger. He reached a total of approximately 5,600 households.
With his extensive service history, Evans said running for township committee seemed like a natural progression. He received 5,815 votes, more than 99 percent of the total vote. Fifty voters wrote in a candidate.
Evans will be in charge of health, senior services and veterans affairs for Cinnaminson. Veterans affairs is something Evans is particularly passionate about.
“What I know that they don’t have in Cinnaminson are programs in place for local veterans to understand what their actual benefits are — somewhere they can go to find out what organization they can get information from,” Evans said. “That’s where I’m starting. To make sure that people who need information know that they can come to me and I will provide them that information or give them direction.”
Evans has lots of plans in place for Cinnaminson, and he says through everything, his wife Stephanie is his biggest supporter. The pair were high school sweethearts and have been together for 30 years. Evans even recalls the first day they met — Dec. 6, 1986.
“I sat two seats behind her during SATs, and she turned around and offered me a stick of gum,” Evans said. “I met her at SATs with no intention of going to college.”
Evans gave a touching thank you to Stephanie at the reorganization meeting, saying he loves the way she constantly underestimates her own strength and overvalues his.
When Evans isn’t working or volunteering, he stays active. He’s an avid crossfitter and occasionally still partakes in ice hockey and golf.
Evans replaced councilwoman Kathy Fitzpatrick who chose not to run for re-election in 2016. Evans says he has been in contact with Fitzpatrick and plans to reach out to her for advice when needed.
Evans says he will strive to be a voice of reason on township committee and to always challenge the status quo.
“I want to ensure that this committee works together for a common goal,” he said.
