David Hawkins:
CLASS OF 1962
Classical High SchoolClass of 1962
Providence, RI
David's Story
As briefly as I can....After graduation from Classical I attended Georgia Tech in Atlanta, majoring in Aerospace Engineering. I graduated in 1966, then earned a Masters in AE, specializing in rocket engine propulsion. Married my sweetheart, Jennifer Waters, native of Atlanta, and we migrated west to California for me to work at Rocketdyne (part of North American Rockwell) in propulsion research and design. Our first child was born in 1970 (saving me from Viet Nam duty). Life was sweet and exciting in Southern California except for the smog and the traffic! We moved back east to be nearer Jennifer's mother and for me to work on the Apollo program in Huntsville, Al.. With the manned spaceflight program being terminated, we moved to Gainesville, Florida in 1972 where I earned an MS in Environmental Engineering and took a job with Dames & Moore, an international engineering and environmental company. Our first child, Crissa, was born in 1970 followed by Michael in 1974, Lara in 1975, and Rebecca in 1977. Michael lived only a few hours, our first tragedy. After that, life was good again and we enjoyed living in Atlanta, traveling to the mountains and beaches for fun together. Since I did not know how to play with young girls, I got Crissa, soon followed by Lara and Bec...Expand for more
ka, involved in sports. That became almost a full time occupation outside of work, especially in softball and basketball, sometimes traveling as far as California for tournaments. Crissa played a year at FSU, then came home to Atlanta in 1991 when our second tragedy occurred, her death in an auto accident.
In 1996 I left D&M to work for the state on the Water War between Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. In 1998 Jennifer was found to have leukemia, a terrible disease which finally killed her in 2002. I met Susan Littlejohn, a sister of a good friend from college, a few months later, and we married in 2004. By then my girls had graduated from college and were pretty much independent. Becka married in 2006, now lives in Asheville, NC with her husband and two children, Liana, almost 10 and Ralyn, 8. They also play sports! Lara has a great life in Charlotte, NC, with a job in consulting, boy friend Nathan, and many friends. Her joy is to bike somewhere overseas each year with friends.
Susan is nearly retired now and we split our time among homes in the mountains of north Georgia, her home in Tallahassee and our getaway in Colorado. Every couple of years we also travel overseas, Just returned from a month in Europe this fall. I can truly say that life is good again.
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