His name is synonymous with RV sales in the Valley. Fresno businessman dies at 91

Paul Evert, who created an empire of self-named RV dealerships in Fresno, died on Sunday.

He was 91 years old.

Evert retired from business in 2018 and in the past few years split his time between Fresno and a home in Shaver Lake. His wife, Sherri Evert, shared the news of his death on Facebook with a photo and simple caption.

In the picture, Evert looks happy and relaxed, smiling for the camera.

The caption reads, “March 1, 1930-May 2, 2021.”

Evert started in business in 1961 selling used sports cars and got into the RV business in 1977. He was a forward-thinker and willing to spend the money necessary to create a unique buying experience for his customers. In 1991, he was one of the first to build a dealership with service bays.

By the mid-1990s, Paul Evert’s RV Country was bringing in $34 million a year selling luxury vehicles that could cost up to $400,000. He also grew the brand by sponsoring an annual outdoor recreation show and making his flagship location off Highway 99 as visible as possible.

That included flying an 1,800-square-foot American flag that he would replace each year.

By the time he retired, RV Country was operating eight dealerships across five states.

That the business managed to survive the financial crisis in 2008 is testament to Evert’s skill as a businessman and a boss, said John Ostlund, who did marketing for Evert through the 1990s until his retirement.

“He was determined not to let the recession ruin his business,” Ostlund said.

Evert could be an exacting boss with high standards. Ostlund remembers the weekly Wednesday morning meetings where the staff would have to answer for its performance from the prior week. But Evert didn’t expect any more from his employees than he expected from himself.

“He set the standard for accountability,” Ostlund said.

“You learned a lot about self-discipline when you were around Paul.”

That sentiment is shared by Curt Curtis, who worked fro Evert for 30-plus years and is now a primary partner at RV Country.

“Paul was hard on me at times, but all for the greater good of challenging me to be the best, have the greatest work ethic, and taking care of our employees and customers. He has been a huge inspiration to me and I will think of him always and lead by example as he taught me to do,” Curtis said.

There was, of course, another side to Evert. He used to love bringing people to his office to show off his taxidermy collection of ostriches, emus and rheas.

“He called them his advisers,” Curtis said.

In a post on Facebook on Monday, Ray Appleton remembered that side of Evert, whom the KMJ radio host called his “eccentric equal.” The pair often shared the battlefield at the annual Civil War Revisited events at Kearney Park.

“That voice, which was was somewhere between a barnyard rooster and a Bar Harbor Maine foghorn, has ceased,” Appleton wrote, going on to describe Evert’s life as a lesson in self-deprecating humor.

“Who else would bury his arm with his best friend?” Appleton wrote. Evert lost his left arm in a car accident when he was 17.

“There are few people I have met that I have loved from the minute I met them,” he wrote.

“This one really hurt.”

Services for Evert will be at 1 p.m. May 10 at Clovis Hills Community Church, 10590 N. Willow Ave. in Clovis.

This story was originally published May 3, 2021 at 12:32 PM.