Springfield Wesley Alumni

Linda Hawn

The following is taken from an e-mail written by Mike Swingle, Linda Hawn's brother. Linda passed in mid-2004.

Linda Hawn was born in Bolivar, MO on September 22, 1939. She was raised in Bolivar and graduated as the Salutatorian of her class. She missed being Valedictorian by hundreds of a point. She then attended her first two years of college at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar on scholarships and working part time to pay her way.

Her degree from Southwest Missouri State University was in Medical Technology and she went on to the University of Kansas Medical Center, ironically, to work on a special cytology training program. Then she moved to Columbia and went to work for the University of Missouri Medical Center Hospital where she met a young man named William E. Hawn. They were married and had two sons, Matthew Hawn and Andrew Hawn. Because Bill Hawn was in the Air force ROTC, when he finished his Master's Degree in Hospital Administration from MU, he was assigned to the Travis Air force in California. He ran a field hospital in Cambodia during the Viet Nam war. Linda and family moved to California. She continued work as a medical technologist for a while before pursuing her own Master's Degree in Health Care and Education. She had a couple of their jobs but ended up at University of California - Berkley in Adult Continuing Education. A lot of the work she did, and her first love, was a program for freshman who needed help to get their grades up to be able to get into the regular academic program at Berkley. She and Bill were very active in various United Methodist Churches during her lifetime. She was always a champion for women's and students issues, thus her love of the work of the Wesley Foundations both in Springfield and in San Francisco. I am very proud to say that shortly before she retired she had obtained the distinction of being the only non-PhD Department Chairperson in the UC - Berkley system, a fact which speaks reams about her intelligence, her devotion to her job, her political savvy, her unique abilities to call the best out of her staff by fighting for them with a willingness to put her own job on the line, and her love of persons, regardless of their background, politics, etc.

She was a remarkable woman of great humility and super organizational skills. I shall miss her a great deal but take real comfort in knowing how much she touched thousands of lives for good during her time here.

10-28-2004