George Wilbur Hawkins

George W. Hawkins Mar. 22, 1925 - Feb. 2, 2012 Resident of McKinleyville George Hawkins of McKinleyville, CA, was born in Ogden, UT March 22, 1925. He passed away February 2, 2012 at age 86. When he was just months old, the family moved to Davenport, IA where his father, Karl studied to be a chiropractor. His mother, Josephine was the youngest of 12 children and was a housewife. George was the oldest boy of nine children. When George was 10 they moved to Ogden Canyon and he thought that was great fun: "Rattlesnakes and Fishing!" In high school in Salt Lake City in 1942, he met his first wife-to-be, LaRue, graduated and then went into the Army Engineers in 1943, ending up in Australia and New Guinea where he got "every skin disease and fungus they make in the world". That was to plague him all his life. George came home from World War II, married LaRue and moved to Logan, UT where he took art classes and then for further training, moved his family to Hayward, CA. George eventually became a Master Sculptor, but didn't think he could make a living at art, so he got a teaching credential from The California College of Arts and Crafts and he held quite a few varied jobs in order to support his growing family. In 1965, he was recruited by Xerox as a training specialist in R and D in NY. George was fired from that job and said it was because: "I put my boss in the hospital with a major case of ulcers". He was pursuing art and so a dear friend, Warren Wilson introduced him to bronze casting and asked George to design a sculpture for the city of Oakland which Warren would purchase and then donate to the Oakland Art Museum. In 1986, the sculpture "Three Sisters" was put on permanent exhibit by the Oakland Art Museum in Snow Park in Oakland, near Kaiser Permanente. George specified that the sculpture be placed outside, because the Museum did not allow people to touch their art, and he wanted people to enjoy the feel of his work, especially little kids. George was a very prolific painter, pen-and-ink artist, carver and sculptor and his work is in the collections of many people, all over the world. He was known as, and signed his work as George LaRue. George and LaRue were married for over 51 years and in 1968, they started traveling and went all over the world taking photographs. George would later put together professional travel slide shows with background music and voiceover narration. (George had a nice voice and was a radio host for a little while.) Almost every month he would invite about 20 friends to his home for wine, snacks and to enjoy his travel shows. He treasured these times. His friends were very dear to him. He and LaRue moved to McKinleyville in 1989 to get away from the bay area traffic and in 1998 they were divorced. George was retired and continued to develop some great friendships, and felt blest that he had such steadfast and true friends and neighbors. Even though he was tethered to an oxygen tank 24/7, he would meet whoever wanted to turn up, for coffee every morning just for "the beauty of friendship and arguing". In 2010, George called a friend to tell her he had just heard of the death of her husband. They talked for a long time and then also talked for days and weeks. They finally got together and so Nancy and George were married in October, 2010. They had met and dated and were friends, some 60 years ago at the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and had kept track of one another off and on all those years. George is survived by his wife, Nancy Reid-Hawkins and daughter Jody Rusconi of McKinleyville, daughter Susan Gordon of Oakland, son David, grandsons Noah Hawkins and Matthew Gordon; many sisters, brothers, cousins, nieces and nephews in Utah. There will be a memorial service at Snow Park at 1:00 pm Sunday, Feb. 12, where the "Three Sisters" sculpture is located in Oakland. If you feel you must donate something in George's memory, give to Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, a wonderful organization that takes care of birds and animals that have come to mishap - P.O. Box 4141, Arcata, CA 95518. Ah! The souls that die, are but sunbeams lifted higher. Longfellow

Published by Inside Bay Area on Feb. 12, 2012.