WSOC photojournalist John Evans died unexpectedly on Monday.
Evans had worked at Charlotte’s ABC affiliate for 37 years and was longest-tenured member of the newsroom. He mainly worked in the South Carolina bureau.
“I used to joke with him,” said former reporter Greg Suskin. “I saw him more than I saw my wife and kids. I was with him 9-10 hours, five days a week for 20 years. Most of the time, just the two of us. driving to a story, working and editing together. John was just, he was like a mentor to me. He was like a big brother to me but more importantly, he was a godly man.”
“You often hear people say that someone would have given you the shirt off their back and people say that a lot,” Suskin said. “I saw John Evans actually do that. On more than one occasion. We’d be out on a story. It would be very cold. If you saw someone just wearing a T-shirt, I saw him take a sweatshirt off and just hand it to that person.”
“He was the type of person who, when we went out on a story and if we interviewed someone who was hurting, John showed them immense compassion,” said WSOC reporter Tina Terry. “The person who we were interviewing, they knew John cared about him.”
Terry added, “And I’m so happy I had the chance to work with him over these past eight months. And I’ll never forget him.”