In sad Black News ... UC's 1st Black Dean

EVENDALE - Dr. Lawrence Charles Hawkins Sr., son of a South Carolina sharecropper, was the first African-American to serve as a dean and a senior vice president at the University of Cincinnati.
Advertisement

Hawkins was also an original Tuskegee Airman, a teacher and administrator for the Cincinnati Public Schools for more than 40 years, a leader in race relations in Cincinnati and a founder of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

His accomplishments prove to young men - especially young black men - that it can be done, he told The Enquirer in 1995.

"I guess if I had go say something about myself it is that I love a challenge," he said.

Hawkins, 90, died Saturday at his home in Evendale.

"All of us who knew Larry admired him tremendously," said Joe Pichler, who was a co-founder with Hawkins of the Greater Cincinnati Scholarship Association, which provides 1,000 college scholarships a year to high school students. "He was well known and highly respected by everyone who has been involved in race relations within Cincinnati."

In 1979, Hawkins was named chairman of the Mayor's Police Community Relations Panel and led creation of a paper on police-community relations. In 1984, he received the Charles P. Taft Civic Gumption Award for his contributions to race relations.

He was born in Greenville, S.C., on March 20, 1919. He graduated from Walnut Hills High School and went on to the University of Cincinnati, where he received two bachelor's, a master's and a doctorate degree. The university later bestowed on him an honorary doctor of literature degree.

At UC, Hawkins was a founder of the Beta Eta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

"During the time of the riots in Cincinnati - we call them the revolutions in Cincinnati - he took part in trying to settle some of the uprisings that occurred," said Donald A. Spencer of Avondale, a fraternity brother.

"I would say his major contribution's been to accept responsibilities to make a way for the better positioning of African-American leaders in the city. He made it possible for others to come behind him."

After college, Hawkins served as a lieutenant in the infantry and a pilot in the Army Air Force during World War II. He was one of the few black pilots that got to fly missions, Spencer said.

Hawkins went on to become a teacher at Cincinnati Public Schools' 12th District School. In 1957, he was appointed principal of Samuel Ach Junior High School in Avondale.

"I was told that this would be an experiment to see if blacks could serve as school principals," he told The Enquirer. "I was also told that it was impossible to do anything with Samuel Ach because the students were too dumb and too unruly to learn anything."

He was known for providing structure and stability in a nurturing environment. He retired from CPS as assistant superintendent.

In 1969, Hawkins was named dean of the UC College of Community Services, becoming the first African-American dean at the university. He became vice president and vice provost for continuing education and metropolitan affairs in 1973, and senior vice president for administration, secretary of the board of trustees and professor of education and community services in 1977.

Hawkins was vice chairman of the board of trustees of KnowledgeWorks Foundation and chairman of the Citizen's Cable Communications Board. He was a director of Ohio Citizens Council for Health and Welfare, Western & Southern Financial Group, the Cincinnati branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, WCET-TV, Bethesda Hospital and the Deaconess Association.

He was a 33rd-degree Mason and a member of Sigma Pi fraternity, Alpha Delta Boule.

Hawkins was named a Greatest Living Cincinnatian by the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce in 1989.

Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Earline T. Hawkins; a son, Lawrence C. Hawkins Jr. of Evendale; two brothers, Arsby Hawkins and Theodore Hawkins of Dayton, Ohio; a sister, Laura Lorene Robbins; and two grandchildren.

Visitation: 9 a.m.-noon Saturday followed by the service at Gaines United Methodist Church, 5707 Madison Road, Madisonville. Interment: Spring Grove Cemetery.