[1] After secondary education at Germantown Friends School, Evans matriculated at Haverford College and graduated there in 1936[2] with a bachelor's degree in biology.
"[1] In 1942 Evans moved to the University of California, Davis to become an assistant zoologist supervised by Tracy I. Storer at the Agricultural Experiment Station.
[1] From 1959 to 1982, he served as Associate Director and oversaw the operation of the E. S. George Reserve, a protected tract of fields, ponds, and forests near Ann Arbor.
[2] From 1948 to 1997 Evans studied community ecology in successional changes in a 7.7 ha old field at the Edwin S. George Reserve in Livingston County, Michigan.
[9] Over the years, Fran worked especially closely and published with S. A. Cain, E. Dahl, and R. G. Wiegert on vegetation and primary production of the old field, with P. J. Clark and R. H. Brand on statistical analyses of spatial patterns and species richness, with W. R. Dawson on bird populations (the two were awarded the Harry R. Painton Award from the Cooper Ornithological Society in 1963 for their collaborative research), and with U. N. Lanham, D. F. Owen, S. K. Gangwere, and W. W. Murdoch on insect communities.