Background
Evans Melvin was born in Christiansted on 7 August 1917.
Evans Melvin was born in Christiansted on 7 August 1917.
Received his primary and secondary education in the Virgin Islands. He then studied at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he received a bachelor of science degree in 1940 and a medical degree in 1944. He subsequently received a master of public health degree at the University of California at Berkeley in 1967.
Evans was the physician in charge of the Frederikstad Municipal Hospital in St. Croix from 1945 to 1948, and chief municipal physician of the Virgin Islands government in St. Croix during 1951-1956 and 1957-1959. Between 1959 and 1967, he was Virgin Islands commissioner of health.
Evans led the reorganization of the Progressive Republican Party in the Virgin Islands and was its successful candidate for governor, serving from 1969 to 1975.
In 1979-1980 he was the Virgin Islands’ nonvoting member of the U.S. Congress. In 1981 he was named ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago by the Reagan administration.