SAN ANGELO, Texas — If you talk with retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins for any length of time about his life, two words are bound to come up: faith and family.
Hawkins, who graduated from Angelo State University in 1977, is entering his fifth year as the school’s first Black president, after a distinguished career in the United States Air Force that stretched across almost four decades.
“The things that drive me now, the first and foremost, is honoring God,” Hawkins said. “And then taking care of my family is the second thing, and then all other things fall in behind those two.”
Born more than 3,000 miles away from San Angelo to a military family in Anchorage, Alaska, Hawkins spent much of his childhood zigzagging around the world.
“I am a military brat... We moved all over the place. I’ve had brothers and sisters born in different countries and the like, so it’s been fun.”
The military has played a huge role in the Hawkins family history for four generations now, starting with his grandfather’s service as a Buffalo Soldier, and continuing with his father, who joined at a time when the military — and the whole country — had begun slowly but painfully changing for the better.
“It had a tremendous effect on me. My father, having just come into the military right after it was desegregated,” Hawkins said. “And so as a result of that, he had a tough row to hoe in the military. Now I will tell you: he did — I didn’t. You know, the United States Air Force, even during that timeframe, as far as taking care of the dependents, it was great. So I had a lot of fun growing up as a military dependent. And that also helped me decide that’s what I wanted to do.”
The Hawkins family had landed in San Angelo by the time Ronnie was starting ninth grade. The following year at Central High School, he’d meet his soulmate, Maria, in world history class. When asked about the impact Maria has made in his life, the first word out of his mouth, after a moment, was “Wow.”
“Maria is… she’s the foundation of our entire family. And that’s not… I don’t say that just because I want somebody to hear that, it’s just the reality of it. She’s got a very strong faith and focus,” Hawkins said. “And so we’re a team. It’s Ronnie and Maria, or Maria and Ronnie, according to which family you’re talking from. And it’s always been that way. It’s been that way since we were in high school. We’ll be married 50 years in June of this year… She’s got the extravert-type personality that this guy doesn’t have, and so she brings me along pretty good.”
Ronnie and Maria (or Maria and Ronnie) have three children: two sons and a daughter, and six grandchildren. Their sons are keeping the armed forces tradition alive, with both achieving the rank of colonel in the Air Force.
As for his historic role at ASU, he said discipline, life experience, and of course those two constants: faith and family, had already prepared him before he sat down behind the president’s desk.
“I don’t want to say there was any added pressure, I knew that there was the recognition that came with being the quote-unquote first Black president, but that didn’t… I don’t shrug my shoulders at it as in, ‘That’s insignificant.' I understand that significance. I will tell you this, though: Having been the only African American in many different situations in my life — you notice that. And there is that added drive to do the things that are right. But pressure, no, I didn’t have any pressure.”
This Black History month, Hawkins urges people to think about the differences that make America great.
“I think the thing that all of us need to contemplate is the diversity that comes from the United States of America, from its inception if you will,” he said. “Everybody didn’t come from the same place, everybody didn’t look alike, but we have succeeded in becoming… if not the greatest nation, one of the greatest nations the world has ever seen before, because of our diversity. And Black history helps in that accord or that way, by what we learn, of what’s been done in the past, and more importantly, what’s being done now, and into the future. If you don’t learn from history, you’re doomed to repeat it, in many different ways.”