Evelyn Pellaton was Cal Poly's director of athletics for women during the formative years of the women's athletics program in the mid-1970s. When the men's and women's athletics programs merged in the early 1980s, Pellaton became an associate athletics director.

"She should be recognized for her selfless efforts and personal donation to the athletics department. She was instrumental in guiding women's athletics at Cal Poly into what it has become today," said then-director of athletics Dick Heaton. "The late 1970s and early 1980s were difficult times and was a new beginning for women's athletics."

Pellaton was a physical education professor at Cal Poly from 1966-82. She was a gymnastics coach for three years and track and field coach for nine seasons. She also served as acting head of the women’s physical education department and was a student advisor.

Pellaton is a 1950 graduate of San Francisco State with a bachelor’s degree in physical education and earned her master’s degree in 1953 at San Francisco State and a doctor of education degree in physical education curriculum in 1975 at Laurence University of California. She played basketball, field hockey and softball while attending San Francisco State and was a player on several softball teams which won state and national championships in the 1940s.

Among her many other accomplishments, Pellaton was director of the Cal Poly Physical Education Workshop in 1967, was named Citizen of the Year by the Cayucos Chamber of Commerce, served in the United States Naval Reserve as a chief personnelman from 1960-81 and was a drummer in numerous bands.

She was inducted into the San Francisco State Physical Education and Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984.