Gayle (G.) Edward Evans was born on January 5, 1937, in Huntington, Pennsylvania. His degrees from the University of Minnesota include a BA (1959), an MA in Anthropology (1961), and an MA in Library Science (1963). In 1969, he earned a PhD from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at the iSchool of Illinois. He then went on to serve as faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles Graduate School of Library and Information Science.

According to a GSLIS Newsroom article, Evans has held "leadership and teaching positions at Harvard College, Loyola Marymount University, and the University of Denver," and holds additional degrees in anthropology and archaeology. As a result of his research in multiple his degrees of study, he has numerous published works, including Developing Library Collections (1981) and Academic Librarianship (2010), and was awarded a Fullbright and National Science Foundation Fellowship, during which "he taught management and collection development courses in library schools in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland." Evans has also served as an administrator at private academic libraries, including Harvard and Loyola Marymount Universities.

Today, G. Edward Evans is retired in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he volunteers and/or consults for the Friends Flagstaff City — Coconino County Public Library and the Museum of Northern Arizona Library and Archives. He is credited with securing scholarships for Native American students at the University of California and for raising funds for the California Library Association's Scholarship for Minority Students in Memory of Edna Yelland.

Fall 2015 marked the first year of the GSLIS G. Edward Evans Minority Student Scholarship, founded by Evans and supplemented by his own funds. "Students have had to buy many of those books," he says, referring to his works. "I decided that I should give back some of the royalties I earned in some manner. I hope this scholarship will increase the number of students that will attend Illinois and graduate and go into the field." The G. Edward Evans Minority Student Scholarship encourages an increase of underrepresented groups in Library Information Science education and information professions.