William James Evans, a retired Baltimore trial attorney and noted parliamentarian who was one of the authors of the revised Robert's Rules of Order, died Friday of complications from an infection at Roland Park Place. He was 78.
Mr. Evans became interested in parliamentary procedure when he was a student at the Johns Hopkins University and was asked to serve as chairman at a Young Republicans convention in Charlottesville, Va.
"Most people get interested in parliamentary law because they're called on to preside, and don't know how and want to find out," he told The Sun in a 1981 article. "Sometimes others get into it because they have a point of view they want to advance in an organization they belong to, and they use this as a tool."
Mr. Evans was also fascinated by the subject's history.
"Parliamentary law came into its own just about the time Maryland was settled by Lord Baltimore. It was then that the British Parliament was coming into its own, no longer dominated by such personalities as Elizabeth I and James I," he told The Sun in a 1953 article. "So it had to have rules of procedure. The rules developed -- just as did the common law -- by rulings and precedents."
Mr. Evans also became close friends with Sarah Corbin Robert, who lived in Annapolis and was a daughter-in-law of Gen. Henry Robert, who wrote the original Robert's Rules of Order, first published in 1876.
She had also become the book's principal author and was a director and trustee of the Robert's Rules Association, which has the authority to approve changes in subsequent editions of the book.
Mrs. Robert asked him to assist in preparing the 1970 edition, and a decade later he was editor of the 1980 edition. He also participated in the 1981, 1990 and 2000 revisions -- the current edition in print.
"Bill was a big part of the 1970s revision, which was the same year the title changed to Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised. We prepare a new edition about every decade, and he brought a great expertise to it," said Daniel H. Honemann, who is a member of the authorship committee and a semiretired Whiteford, Taylor & Preston attorney.
"He was one of these fellows who dug and dug and dug, and the more interested he became, the more he dug. He became the pre-eminent parliamentary authority and was a giant in the world of parliamentarians," Mr. Honemann said. "He was head and shoulders above everyone else."
He was secretary and parliamentarian for the Maryland State Bar Association for six years during the 1970s and had been parliamentarian to the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland. He was president of the National Association of Parliamentarians from 1979 to 1981, and was also the organization's parliamentarian.
Mr. Evans was born at home in Hampden and raised on Weldon Place.
"My father never did anything a little bit. If he was interested in something, he learned everything there was to know about it. As a young boy, he was very interested in English history and built to scale a model of London in his bedroom," said a daughter, Olivia M. Evans of Brunswick.
"He was interested in the printing process and as a young man wrote a small book -- it was a small, humorous book about outhouses, which he printed on his own printing press," she said.
When he was a student at City College and editor of the school's newspaper, he interviewed author and editor H.L. Mencken.
"He saw Mencken, his idol, getting into a cab, and got in as well, and interviewed him as it traveled downtown," Ms. Evans said.
After graduating from City College in 1946, he earned a bachelor's degree from Hopkins in 1950. He was drafted into the Army during the Korean War, and after being honorably discharged, earned his law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1953.
He was a public defender before joining the law firm of Miles & Stockbridge in 1964. He later was made a partner and retired from the firm in 1993.
"Bill was quite a character and an exceptional litigator. He had a very dry and wry sense of humor," said John Frisch, chairman and chief executive of Miles & Stockbridge.
"He really enjoyed a good, intelligent argument. He liked the back-and-forth debate because he had a very keen and thoroughly analytical mind, which he always brought to the task," Mr. Frisch said. "He had a kind demeanor and always had time for you."
John Park Sweeney, chairman of the firm's litigation department, was a close friend for years.
"I was an arrogant young lawyer of 40 who thought he knew everything until I met Bill Evans," Mr. Sweeney said with a laugh. "He was a very powerful litigator and forceful advocate for his clients."
Mr. Sweeney described him as "gentle and fair" and "respected and respectful."
He added: "He was a man who loved to argue, but it never became personal or rancorous."
Mr. Evans was a man of varied interests. When he became interested in winemaking, he planted grape vines in the backyard of his Guilford home and turned his basement into a combined winery and wine cellar.
Beekeeping was another interest, and he installed a bee hive in the attic of his Juniper Road home while becoming a certified master beekeeper.
He taught himself Welsh, rode bicycles and played chess. He enjoyed fine food, history, opera and traveling.
Mr. Evans was fascinated by the building and operation of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal and had served as president, treasurer and secretary of the C&O; Canal Association.
"He had so many interests that when he retired, we decided that he wouldn't miss us as much as we were going to miss him," Mr. Sweeney said.
"He could never sit still for long and always had something to talk about," his daughter said.
His wife of 40 years, the former Georgia Johnson, died in 1998.
Mr. Evans was a member of the Homewood Friends Meeting where a memorial service was held Tuesday.
Also surviving are a son, John W. Evans of Franklin, N.C.; another daughter, Patricia Evans Best of Wiesbaden, Germany; and five grandchildren.
fred.rasmussen@baltsun.com