HIU Mourns the Passing of Alice Frazer Evans, Plowshares Co-Founder

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The Hartford International University community mourns the loss of Alice Frazer Evans, 83, who co-founded the Plowshares Institute based in Simsbury, CT, and taught courses in theology and ethics at HIU.

Alice was the recipient of an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from HIU in 2017 and accepted a posthumous degree for her husband and Plowshares Co-Founder, the Rev. Dr. Robert "Bob" Evans.

The team, and they were an inseparable team, received numerous awards and were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by members of the South African Parliament in recognition of their efforts to equip South African anti-apartheid leaders with conflict transformation skills.

"Alice was a peacebuilder and peace educator in everything she did," said Phoebe Milliken, Director of the MA in International Peacebuilding at HIU.  "The remarkable work of Plowshares Institute was made possible by her tireless efforts to design powerful educational programs tailored to the needs of each global partner. When I am working on a peacebuilding lesson plan or a program design, I can almost hear Alice reminding me to make sure the process of learning lives up to the values implicit in the content.  Her wisdom is woven throughout the MAP program at HIU."

Alice earned a BA from Agnes Scott College and the University of Edinburgh and graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin and the Goethe Institute in Berlin.

Alice and Bob, who also raised three children, founded the Plowshares Institute to cultivate peace through through mediation, case-based conflict transformation training, and intensive international travel seminars.  

"As a board member of Plowshares Institute I had the opportunity to see the impact and engagement of Alice Evans and her husband Bob in opening the world to those who accompanied them to challenged countries in their peace and reconciliation work," said Nancy Roberts, 2nd Vice Chair of the HIU Board of Trustees. "I was one of the many people who benefited from seeing the world through their eyes."

After the Plowshares Institute closed in 2015, its board voted to support Hartford International University's International Peacemaking Program (now the MA in International Peacebuilding) with its remaining financial resources.

Alice wrote and edited many books and led travel seminars with Bob in countries across the globe. According to her obituary, Alice was also "a remarkable gardener and an accomplished underwater diver." After her diagnosis with Alzheimer's disease, she chose to participate in a study at the Yale Alzheimer’s Disease Research Unit to help find a cure. 

A Memorial Service will be held at 11 a.m. on Aug. 26, 2023, at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 217 Berkley Rd. Devon, PA. The service will be livestreamed at stjohnsdevon.com. 

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests honoring Alice’s memory with contributions to the Bob and Alice Evans Plowshares Peacemaking Enrichment Fund at hartfordInternational.edu/give. The fund supports HIU’s Master of Arts in International Peacebuilding (MAP) which is an evolution of the International Peacemaking Program (IPP) .

The full obituary can be found here.