Danny Wood Evins (October 11, 1935 – January 14, 2012) was an American
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
and
co-founder
An organizational founder is a person who has undertaken some or all of the formational work needed to create a new organization, whether it is a business, a charitable organization, a governing body, a school, a group of entertainers, or any other ...
of
Cracker Barrel
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., doing business as simply Cracker Barrel, is an American chain of restaurant and gift stores with a Southern country theme. The company was founded by Dan Evins in 1969. Its first store was in Lebanon, T ...
, a Southern-themed
restaurant chain
A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many pa ...
.
Early life
Evins was born in
Smithville, Tennessee
Smithville is a city in DeKalb County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 5,004 at the 2020 census, up from 3,994 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of DeKalb County. Smithville is home to the Smithville Fiddler's Jamboree, whic ...
, on October 11, 1935.
[ As a child he graduated from ]Castle Heights Military Academy
Castle Heights Military Academy was a private military academy in Lebanon, Tennessee, United States. It opened in 1902, became a military school in 1918, and closed in 1986.
The Academy was founded in 1902 as Castle Heights School by David Mitche ...
in Lebanon, Tennessee
Lebanon is the county seat of Wilson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 38,431 at the 2020 census. Lebanon is located in Middle Tennessee, approximately east of downtown Nashville. Lebanon is part of the Nashville Metropolit ...
. He enlisted in the US Army, served in Korea in the Corps of Engineers and attended Auburn University
Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...
.[
]
Career
Evins also worked as an aide for his uncle, U.S. Rep.
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
Joe L. Evins
Joseph Landon Evins (October 24, 1910 – March 31, 1984) was an American lawyer and politician who served 15 terms as a Democratic U.S. Representative from Tennessee from 1947 to 1977.
Early life
Evins was a native of the Blend Community ...
, before taking a position with his family's oil company.[
Evins co-founded Cracker Barrel in 1969 while he was working for ]Shell Oil
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yor ...
. He opened the first restaurant in Lebanon, Tennessee
Lebanon is the county seat of Wilson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 38,431 at the 2020 census. Lebanon is located in Middle Tennessee, approximately east of downtown Nashville. Lebanon is part of the Nashville Metropolit ...
, on Tennessee State Route 109
State Route 109 (SR 109) is a primary state highway in Middle Tennessee. It runs from the intersection of SR 265 and Interstate 840 (I-840, exit 72) near Lebanon, north through Gallatin to the Kentucky state line and I-65 (exit 121).
SR 109 ...
.[ He borrowed $40,000 to construct the first Cracker Barrel, which turned a profit just one month after opening.][
Evins was the ]chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
(CEO) of Cracker Barrel from its founding in 1969 to 2001, and after a shareholder exodus due to his discriminatory policies, he was chairman of the board
The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...
from 2001 until his retirement in 2004.[ During this time he was also served as chairman of the board of directors for Castle Heights Military Academy while his son was enrolled in the school.][
In 1998, Evans led the drive by Cracker Barrel to purchase and restore the Mitchell House in Lebanon, Tennessee. The home had been a dormitory for elementary age students while Castle Heights Military Academy had been operating.][ The company spent two million dollars to restore the home and make it the company's corporate office.]
Discriminatory views and termination
During the early 1990s, Cracker Barrel became the subject of nationwide controversy when Evins personally instituted an official company policy of discrimination, prohibiting the hiring of any individual whose "sexual preferences fail to demonstrate normal heterosexual values." Following massive public backlash and large shareholders such as the New York City Employee Retirement System threatening to vote out the entirety of upper management, the company reversed the policy.
For the next decade, Evins continued to spark controversy through his public and private encouragement of discriminatory practices against female and minority employees, practices which violated the company's own non-discrimination policy.
In July 2001, shareholders stripped Evins of his position as president and CEO of the company, replacing him with Michael A. Woodhouse, who at the time was serving as the company's chief operating officer. Evins was allowed to maintain his position as chairman of the board. The same year, shareholders forced the company's board to vote unanimously to add sexual orientation to Cracker Barrel's non-discrimination policy, with the term officially being added the following year.
In May 2004, the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) announced it had settled a lawsuit alleging that Cracker Barrel employees at approximately 50 of the company's 500 locations discriminated against minority customers, including 50 stores located in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia that engaged in various discriminatory policies including racially segregated seating and service quality. In the settlement agreement Cracker Barrel pledged to implement a series of changes, including to strengthen and make public the company's non-discrimination policies, retrain and/or terminate employees in violation of the new policies, and pledged to focus on improving minority representation and civic involvement.
A few months following the announcement, the company's board of directors (with the backing of shareholders), quietly voted to adopt a mandatory retirement age of 70 for all Cracker Barrel executives and board members. The implementation of this rule prompted company founder Evins, who was 69 at the time, to announce his retirement as chairman of the company's board. At the company's 2004 annual meeting, shareholders voted to reelect Michael A. Woodhouse as CEO, while also granting him Evins' title as chairman of the board, effectively merging the roles.
By January 2012, Cracker Barrel had more than 67,000 employees
Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...
working in more than 600 restaurants in 42 U.S. states.
Personal life
On January 14, 2012, Evins died at his daughter's home in Lebanon, Tennessee
Lebanon is the county seat of Wilson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 38,431 at the 2020 census. Lebanon is located in Middle Tennessee, approximately east of downtown Nashville. Lebanon is part of the Nashville Metropolit ...
, at the age of 76.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evins, Dan
1935 births
2012 deaths
American company founders
Businesspeople from Tennessee
Shell plc people
American chief executives of food industry companies
American chairpersons of corporations
Auburn University alumni
Deaths from cancer in Tennessee
Deaths from bladder cancer
20th-century American businesspeople
People from Smithville, Tennessee
People from Lebanon, Tennessee