Stephen R. Evans

Datuk Seri Panglima Stephen Robert Evans (1935–2017) SPDK, JP was a politician, public administrator and author from Sabah, Malaysia.

Evans was born in Kampong Bariawa Laut, a small village populated by ethnic Dusun people predominantly of the Bundu-Liwan tribe in Keningau District, North Borneo (now Sabah) and was a Eurasian of mixed Dusun (of the Kwijau tribe from another part of Keningau district known as Bingkor hailing from the village of Kampung Bandukan Lama) and British descent. His father was Richard F. Evans, a colonial District Officer and later Resident of the West Coast Division for the North Borneo Chartered Company administration, which ruled North Borneo until the 1942 Japanese invasion in World War II who intermarried a local native woman from the said village.

Education Evans studied in a Japanese primary school in Keningau during the occupation. After the war ended, he furthered his secondary education in several Catholic mission schools at Sandakan, Kuching, Sarawak as well as in Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu). In 1966, he was awarded a Columbo Plan Scholarship from the New Zealand Government to study Public Administration and Local Government.

Political career Evans had a distinguished career as a politician in Sabah. He served as a Member of Parliament from 8 August 1974 to 1 June 1977, and a Senator from 15 December 1977 to 20 June 1978.