Evander Roderick McIver

Evander Roderick McIver III, of Kalispell, MT, died peacefully, after a two-year defiance of cancer, on May 18, 2024, at 82 years of age.

Born in Darlington, SC, to Mary Hart Dargan McIver and Evander Roderick McIver, Jr, while his father was overseas in WWII. After the war, his family moved to Conway, SC. Rod grew up there and graduated in 1960 from Conway High School. Along with two high school classmates, he went to college at Sewanee, The University of the South, that fall. Rod graduated in 1964 with a BS in Forestry, and forests would be theme through his life.

After graduation, Rod became a high school chemistry and physics teacher in Georgetown, SC, and in the summers he worked as a Smokejumper in Montana. After the 1966 fire season, he joined the Marines, believing that he should not stay home teaching while his students were being drafted and sent to Vietnam. The Vietnam War was to change his life. After Officer Candidate School, he was deployed there as an infantry officer in June 1967, south of Da Nang. One month later, he was severely wounded by a landmine, for which he was awarded the Purple Heart.

With physical therapy and a continuing fitness lifestyle, he recovered from his injuries and rejoined the Smokejumpers in 1970 and continued in this work for two decades. On the side, he ran small businesses in canoe sales, and portable sawmilling. In his last 25 years he developed an orchard homestead in Kalispell, Montana, where he tested and grew some 400 varieties of apples, attracting the attention of agricultural scientists in the region.

Rod served as a board member for several environmental organizations, including Montana Conservation Voters, Montana Environmental Information Center, Flathead Audubon, and Citizens for a Better Flathead. He was also part of the Retired US Forest Service Smokejumpers Trail Crew and spent weeks each summer rebuilding trails. He also organized and led canoe and hiking trips.

His annual five-day canoe expeditions on the Missouri River were enjoyed by friends and family. Those and similar adventures instilled a love of canoeing, rafting, and the water in all his children and grandchildren. He is fondly remembered by many Smokejumpers, hikers, canoers, and cyclists of Montana, and numerous acquaintances and cousins in South Carolina and throughout the country.

Rod is survived by five children: Martha McIver Ferdinand of St. Louis, MO, and Evander Roderick McIver IV of Bend, OR, children of Carolyn Ferdinand of Carbondale, IL; and Lucas McIntosh McIver (Caitlin) of Huson, MT, Rosa Dargan McIver (Matt Jaeger) of Dillon, MT, and Elsie Kreitner McIver (Andy McReynolds) of Gresham, OR, children of Nancy Kreitner of Missoula, MT; also by his brother Edwin Dargan McIver of Conway, SC; and by ten grandchildren.

The burial was May 20, 2024, at Natural Cemeteries, Swan Lake, MT, where the gravesite looks out on the Swan Range mountains.