Toys For Tots – 2016

Our annual Toys For Tots meeting was again very successful, bringing in a number of toys and donations to support this extremely important program.  The IEFFC members responded to the community needs by filling up two large containers with toys while also supplying hundreds of dollars in monetary donations.toys4tots1

The representatives from the Marines were able to transport the toys from the meeting and the support of our club will help to provide a number of children with a brighter Christmas.

Thanks to all of you who donated toys and cash.  Your support is special.

 

 

Hugh Evans – Arlington National Cemetery

Longtime IEFFC member Hugh Evans, who died March 15, will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Va., at 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 9 with full military honors.  That evening, the Evans family will host a dinner from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Clyde’s of Gallery Place, 707 7th Street Northwest, in Washington, D.C., to celebrate Hugh’s life. The restaurant is across the street from the National Portrait Gallery. A no-host bar will be available.hugh5

Hugh, called by many members the best poacher the IEFFC ever had, was known for his unerring sense of humor, his captivating story telling, and his way of leaving club members wishing he would poach them again. He was a fine fisherman, who particularly loved the Methow River. He provided unfailing good company to his fishing partners. He loved fishing so much he often was the last to quit for the day, and on his best days, he introduced himself to many steelhead.

Hugh was a successful attorney and a good litigator. He rarely talked about his military service, which like many things about Hugh, was extraordinary.

Hugh, an attorney at Evans, Craven & Lackie for many years, was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action on Nov. 29, 1968, in Viet Nam when he continued to direct his men in a firefight with the Viet Cong even after he had been shot in the right arm–and for then helping to evacuate casualties out of the intensely contested area even after he was shot a second time that day, in the left shoulder. “Ignoring his injuries, he continued to supervise his elements’ fire and movement until the aggressors retreated,” his friend, Bill Maxey, wrote in the Spokane County Bar Association’s Calendar Call publication in 2014.

hugh1Hugh also was awarded the Bronze Star with a “V” for valor for heroism in action on Oct. 30, 1968, when he led his men through dense jungle and on a heavily mined road to help embattled forces, “directing the deployment of his men, and directing them through a hail of hostile rounds with complete disregard for his personal safety and exposure of himself to enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire, while encouraging his men and directing their fire on the Viet Cong.”

In a moving tribute to Hugh at his services in Spokane, Jim Craven, Hugh’s law partner and friend for more than 40 years, said, “Hugh was quietly–without any sort of fanfare–kind and generous, whether taking home a homeless veteran for a good meal and a warm place to sleep, or tapping into his network of friends to help an acquaintance find a job.” He added that Hugh “always believed in managing one’s priorities and referred to golf played during business hours as ‘mandatory real estate inspection.'” He remembered that Hugh loved people and parties, and would say, “I’d rather be a liver than have one.”

Craven also said, “Hugh loved to fish and was passionate about it. When he was on a river he was at peace with the world and immune to all its challenges. The picture of Hugh standing on the river with a steelhead in his hands–recently in the newspaper–was to Hugh a snapshot of the Heaven to come. That was Hugh at his happiest.”

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