Evicks retires after 38 years of service

By James Beaty
Senior Editor

July 01, 2008 10:56 am

— For the past 38 years, Ted Evicks has been advising Southeastern Oklahoma residents about everything from those strange-looking bugs on their plants to the best way to wean a calf bawling for its mother.
That’s all changed today.
Evicks spent his last day on the job Monday as the county agent and director for the Pittsburg County office of the Oklahoma State University Extension Service, retiring after 38 years of service in Pittsburg and Haskell counties.
Evicks said the decision to retire didn’t come easy, but he felt the time had come time for some “new blood” to fill the post.
“I really enjoyed it,” Evicks said of his years with the OSU Extension Center. “Pittsburg County’s been really good to me.”
Evicks said Greg Owen, the Pittsburg County 4-H and Youth Development Extension educator, has been named as the interim director in Pittsburg County.
Charles Bess, assistant director of the OSU Extension Center Program, made the appointment, said Pittsburg County Commission Chairman Kevin Smith.
An appointment, or appointments, to fill the slots left vacant by Evicks’ retirement will be made by OSU, according to Smith.
Evicks, a 1970 Wilburton High School graduate, earned degrees from Eastern Oklahoma State College and OSU. After graduating from college, he started at the OSU Extension office in Stigler and then moved to the one in McAlester in 1978.
Evicks plans to get caught up on some of his personal work while retired.
“I really don’t have anything planned, other than working around the house,” he said.
Evicks said he will also assist the OSU Extension Service during the transition if he’s needed.
“I’ll help any way I can,” he said.
The thing he will miss most by being retired is the people he’s come to know, Evicks said.
“I’ll miss not seeing the people I’ve worked with a long time,” he said, referring to not only to his co-workers but to people in the community as well.
“I hope I made the right decision,” Evicks said. “I hope I left some kind of a print.”
He said his mother always told him to “autograph” his work.
“Any job, big or small; do it right, or not at all,” Evicks said.
Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.