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It would be an understatement to say that for many people, life at Heritage without William “Ozzie” Evans is impossible to imagine.
With an attitude Mr. Gulotta described as “unflappable,” Ozzie worked with all phases of the school for seventeen years as chief of maintenance. “If there was an air conditioning problem, we’d call Ozzie. If we had a leak in the classroom, we’d call Ozzie. I don’t know when he ever slept,” said Ms. Shienvold.
But what was truly remarkable about Ozzie was his approach to life. Whether it was a faulty generator or a bad day, “If something wasn’t right, Ozzie knew he could fix it, and always with a glad heart,” recalled teacher and family friend, Ms. Lynn Rutherford.
After serving eight years in the U.S. Air Force, Ozzie returned to Florida to continue a life spent helping others. A family man through and through, he aided teachers on and off campus, as well as dedicating his Saturdays to help clean the church where he was a member. His friends remember him as a man of strong moral convictions and unshakable faith– a man coworker Innocent Loubin considered the epitome of “good people.”
Beneath his uniform, the Ozzie who most deeply touched people’s hearts was an “old-fashioned gentleman,” a lover of science fiction whose life involved church, Heritage, relaxing in his lounge chair while playing with his rottweiler Vader, and “enjoying his wife’s good cookin’,” according to Mrs. Rutherford. “With Ozzie, what you saw was what you got,” she said. “He would drive a car until it disintegrated but would never once say he couldn’t do.”
Although Ozzie Evans has been gone less than two months, his absence is being deeply felt across campus. To many, Evans seemed like the backbone of Heritage, a kind of guardian angel whose good-humor and natural eagerness to help others still seems to linger around campus. “He just had this presence,” said Rutherford, a presence which lives on even though the man behind it is absent in body. And while the hole he left behind with his passing will undoubtedly take a long while to heal, the joy Ozzie brought to all the lives he touched will surely never be forgotten.
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