About Evelyn L. Gayer

BSME 1973, UMR

Evelyn has spent her career in the large, high pressure stainless steel vessel industry for customers that make food, beverage and pharmaceutical products. Evelyn's husband John Gayer is a UMR civil engineering graduate who worked at P&G and then returned to Ash Grove to his father's propane business. They sold it in 1979 and he started Ash Grove Feed & Farm Supply. Growing up in Owensville, Evelyn was encouraged by her high school counselor to think beyond being a pharmacist and consider engineering since she was good at math and science. She liked mechanical engineering since it was comprehensive. A favorite memory of Evelyn's was being crowned Military Queen because most were previously imported from other schools.While still UMR students, Evelyn and John won a contest where the prize was a brand new Lincoln Continental. In 1973, Evelyn had a job and was to graduate after summer school but lacked one class that was not offered in the summer. Professors Chuck Remington and Hank Sauer created a HVAC independent study class where she did experiments and wrote reports. She realized later is was one of the most helpful experiences she ever had since it was just like what she did in her first job at Paul Mueller.