Robert Wayne Hawkinson*
Class of 1966
- President Belden Manufacturing Corporation
The best formula for success is hard work and, to some degree, timing.
Robert Hawkinson was born in Chicago in 1920. His father was an automobile upholsterer and, as his trade diminished, he turned to farming. Hawkinson began school in a one-room country school in Michigan.
In his teens, back in Chicago, Hawkinson earned money working as a delivery boy and gas station attendant. In college, he worked on an assembly line, among other things. When World War II started, he entered the U.S. Army Air Corps and rose to the rank of captain. He flew 80 combat missions in Europe.
In 1945, Hawkinson started at Belden Manufacturing Corporation as a junior engineer and continued his formal education at night. Nine years later, he completed the University of Chicago Executive Program, a two-year postgraduate course leading to an MBA. In 1963, Hawkinson became president of Belden.