Donald Paul Evenson

Donald Paul Evenson, 84, of Brookings, SD passed away March 20, 2025. Memorial Visitation will be held from 2:00pm to 5:00pm Sunday, April 6, 2025, at Rude's Funeral Home with a 4:30pm Celebration of Life Service. Monday April 7, 2025, 11:00am, a graveside service will be held at the Sinai west cemetery with a luncheon to follow at Sinai Lutheran Church.
Dr. Evenson was an internationally renowned scientist for pioneering assessment of sperm DNA damage as related to human and animal male factor infertility and toxicology. He and his colleagues published a couple hundred manuscripts and book chapters on this topic.
Don was born October 30, 1940 in Story City, Iowa, which was his mother's hometown. Following WWII, his family moved to the Evenson home farm near Sinai, SD. Grade school was attended in a one room schoolhouse. High school was attended in Sinai.
In 1964, Dr. Evenson received his B.A. degree in Biology/Chemistry from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD. In 1968, he received his Ph. D in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Colorado (Boulder). This was followed by a two-year postdoctoral study of mammalian DNA structure at the Institute of Molecular Biophysics, Florida State University, then two years at the Union Carbide Research Institute, Tarrytown, New York studying the DNA structure of a cancer virus. He then served a dual faculty appointment for eleven years at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York City. During this time, he studied the effects of chemotherapy on sperm quality. His invention of the Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay (SCSA®) is now used around the world in numerous infertility clinics.
In 1983, he moved with his family to Brookings, South Dakota, to join the faculty as Professor of Biochemistry at South Dakota State University (SDSU), where he continued over the course of more than 25 years to further develop the SCSA® protocol and study its significance in relationship to male factor infertility in humans, pigs, horses, cattle, and zoo animals. Dr. Evenson received, continuous over 25 years, RO1 grants from NIH and other national granting agencies. His SCSA® test is internationally recognized as the first proven commercial test of sperm DNA integrity. Dr. Evenson was President and Director of SCSA® Diagnostics, in Brookings, and certified as a High-Complexity Clinical Laboratory Director and Clinical Consultant by the American Board of Bioanalysis (ABB). He was an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sanford Medical School, University of South Dakota, Sioux Falls, South Dakota up until the time of his death.
Dr. Evenson authored more than 200 peer-reviewed science publications that have been cited in other publications more than 14,000 times. He was a member of various professional societies. He also served as an expert peer reviewer for various scientific journals. Don received multiple awards during his tenure at SDSU including the title of Distinguished Professor, and Lifetime Achievement Awards from Augustana College and the International Animal Andrology Association. He also carried out one-year sabbaticals together with Carol at the Norwegian National Hospital in Oslo and the Department of Animal Science, University of Sydney, Australia.
Don's life was blessed by his sixty-two years of marriage with Carol, and having three successful children, Kay Kasperson, Paul Evenson, Mark Evenson, three grandchildren, Shamus Evenson, Grace Evenson, Zoe Evenson and two great grandchildren, Soren Evenson, Freya Mosher.
Don and Carol were avid world travelers having visited about 120 countries and all the States and Canadian Provinces. Many of these trips were camping trips and excursions with their children. But he and his family always felt grounded by being back "home" living on their farm and in Brookings.
He was a member of the Brookings Rotary Club, the Lake Poinsett Sailing Club and Ascension Lutheran Church.
Don is survived by his wife, Carol, three children, Kay (Rick) Kasperson, Paul (Jen) Evenson, Mark (Meredith) Evenson, three grandchildren, Shamus (Cassie) Evenson, Grace Evenson, Zoe Evenson (John Mosher) and two great grandchildren, Soren Evenson, Freya Mosher, sister Bernice (Al) Teixeira and many nieces and nephews.
Don will be dearly missed by all who knew him.
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