I knew Bob Hawkinson for 27 years, going back to my time teaching English at Willamette and brainstorming with him about, then teaching in, the first World Views seminars.  For several years we also team-taught a seminar on "Community and Authority,"  and after I moved on to the UO Honors College, he brought me back to Willamette to help him with the Kaneko Commons project, which was the culmination of his vision for community on a college campus.  He wanted Kaneko to be a living and learning space that would be fun, democratic, intellectually stimulating, and integral to life at Willamette.  I'm very happy that he could make that vision a reality.  Bob and I shared a great deal--interests in education, politics, culture, travel, music, drama, art, family, friends, ideas, books, controversy--even a  birthday that relegated us both to the status of flaky Aquarians.  We had many many great conversations, and I was looking forward to talking with him about my coming trip to Ann Arbor this summer to team-teach with a political theorist at U Michigan--just as Bob and I had done at Willamette.  Instead I got a call from David Rigsby.  From reading this blog I see just how many people Bob inspired, led, collaborated with, and loved.  It is some comfort to know that he will not be easily forgotten.


Sharon Schuman