Celebrating Hawkins’ time with new clock

Brady Talbert Troy University is ringing in 30 years of Chancellor Jack Hawkins Jr.’s time by dedicating a clocktower in his name on the Bibb Graves Quad. Before Troy’s Sept. 28 football game, members of the faculty and staff, student groups, the Sound of the South marching band, ROTC Color Guard and more will gather in front of Smith Hall at 2 p.m. to honor Hawkins’ three decades of service, which will be represented through a new 16-foot-tall tower. Representatives from Troy’s Student Government Association (SGA) plan to attend the dedication ceremony. “It is an historic event that we are so proud to be a part of,” said SGA President Morgan Long, a senior sports management major from Birmingham, Alabama. “Chancellor Hawkins has served the student body tremendously these past 30 years, and it is an honor to be able to participate in this milestone.” Hawkins took office on Sept. 1, 1989, following the retirement of Dr. Ralph Adams who was chancellor for 25 years. Josh Marvin, a junior communications major from Alabaster, Alabama, whose parents were also Troy students, said his parents were students when Hawkins became the institution’s chancellor. “The fact that my parents and I all attended Troy under the leadership of Chancellor Hawkins has opened great conversation about the ways our university’s history has been preserved under him,” Marvin said. “His commitment to our traditions, devotion to progress and persistence in student relationships has been a generational bond for more families than mine.” The chancellor recently visited the SGA’s Sept. 10 meeting, speaking about the importance of servanthood, just one of many lessons Long said he has learned from Hawkins. “Leaders have the ability to listen, the enthusiasm to pour into others, leaders have the appropriate attitude to take action, and the direction or vision to accomplish the mission,” Long said. “Listening, enthusiasm, attitude, and direction, these are not just traits Chancellor Hawkins preaches, but acts on daily. “Chancellor Hawkins has set a remarkable precedent in this, both by his accessibility and by his kindness to the Trojan family throughout the decades he has served as leader.”