Dennis Evans

Dennis Evans dates the beginning of his career as a serious tennis watcher to the first Wimbledon final he saw in person, the 1978 straight-set drubbing that Bjorn Borg gave Jimmy Connors. Evans missed a FanSlam in 1988 when he was unable to attend the U.S, Open -- for some reason that seemed important at the time but is now completely forgotten -- after making it to the Australian Open, the French, and Wimbledon earlier that year. He began playing tennis during college after spending his early years toiling away ingloriously at several of the team sports that continue to drain away so much of America s potential tennis talent. During his 35 years in the academic world, he taught writing and literature courses, and held a variety of administrative positions, at U.C. Berkeley, Oregon State University and the University of Arizona, where he retired in 2007 as an associate dean of humanities. His interest in international education began when he taught in China for the first time in 1982 at the Dalian Foreign Languages Institute. He also spent 1985-86 in Beijing as a Fulbright lecturer in American literature. At the University of Arizona he worked with several study abroad programs and also led five tours of China and Tibet for the Arizona Alumni Association. Since 2007 he has lived in San Francisco, California.