semester. I knew right away it was Bob and laughed as he was continuing a joke we had started together while I was a student, which was over 10 years ago. I spent a great deal of time with him while I was a student, but Bob was never my academic faculty advisor. Still,
every semester he would see me in the University Center and ask if he had signed off on my classes for next semester. I'd remind him he wasn't my advisor and we would laugh. Every semester, without fail, he would ask me again. I called him back and told him his message made my day. I saw him a few weeks later, for the last time. I took American politics from Bob fall semester of my sophomore year. It was an 8:00am class in Smullin B19 and he would regale us with lectures about the Federalist Papers. Later that same year, he became the first Dean of Campus Life and I became ASWU president, so our
relationship changed and we ended up seeing a lot of each other.
Becoming Dean of Campus Life was fitting role for Bob. Prior to his tenure, the position was called Vice President of Student Affairs, a far more antiseptic title. Not only was it a change for an academic to takeover this position, but Bob also sought to reshape the entire co-curricular experience for students. Becoming Dean was a capstone for the Politics professor who cared deeply about students and student life (see e.g. helping to start the Bistro). He began the new position as Dr. Pelton began his presidency and was given the chance to write from a clean slate. The magnum opus of his tenure was the
Campus Life Task Force. It was the first time in years that anyone had undertaken a wholesale examination of the way that campus life was organized.
At his core, Bob was an academic. He approached problems in a thoughtful, reasoned, measured manner. He looked to history for guidance. The task force met every week and wrestled with big issues, exchanged ideas and talked about how we do things and how we can do them better. He led our discussions by asking thought provoking questions and steering us back on course when conversation drifted too far afield. He had us travel to other universities in teams of students, faculty, and administrators to better understand the different models and best practices. He had me research and read about the history of our own residential system to better understand how we ended up where we are.
But more than the meetings and the work, my fondest memories are of the times we spent just enjoying each other's company. There were six of us on the task force who visited schools throughout New England together my senior year. I remember laughing together as we shared meals. He would have the complete attention of the entire table as he
told stories. Bob never took himself too seriously, which surely contributed to the deep affection that I and so many others felt towards him. I remember countless afternoons sitting in his office in the University Center overlooking the Mill Stream and having wide
ranging discussions, peppered with his anecdotes and references to history. We would laugh together as he would compare aspects of university politics to great historic events in American politics (and occasionally to epic Civil War battles).
Bob was a legend. The embodiment of everything that Willamette stands for. Bob taught you many things, without ever seeming overtly professorial. He made you laugh. He made you think. He was genuine and you knew he cared about you. Bob had no children, but leaves a generation of Willamette students whose time at Willamette was shaped by Bob Hawkinson. It is strange to think of Willamette without him there. I had saved his voicemail and listened to it a few times after learning about his passing. It reminded me of the good times we had together, and it reminded me how much I will miss my teacher and my friend.
Erik Van Hagen
CLA 2000
CLA 2000
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