David Grant Hawkins

1952 - 2020

David Grant Hawkins
September 24, 1952 - June 9, 2020
Resident of Fremont, CA
Last summer, the East Bay lost one of its good guys. David Grant Hawkins was born on September 24, 1952 in Oakland, CA, the first son of 6 children born to the late Grant and Marjorie Hawkins. In this large and loving family, he was raised with good family values which served him well throughout his lifetime.
Dave and his brothers and sisters had fun growing up in East Oakland on 55th Ave. They and their friends played on the MacArthur Freeway when it was under construction, crawled through the tunnels under Mills College, and collected treasures at the dumps. Dave loved tools as a child and built all kinds of things from an early age.
Dave began high school at Oakland's Fremont High before his family moved into the Skyline High School attendance area. Always athletic, Dave was on Skyline's gymnastics team and was able to perform acrobatic flips until his early 40's. After graduating from Skyline in 1970, he attended Laney College before enrolling at BYU where he studied architecture and played on the school's volleyball team. Although he didn't graduate from college, he always made sure his own children would. He had a drafting table for drawing his own building plans and for sketching out his own creative ideas of which he had many.
In 1974, Dave's future wife Carol was living in the Montclair district of Oakland with her parents. While they were on vacation, she accidentally crashed their car into the garage wall. Carol's sister in law suggested that she call her friend's brother Dave - a "really nice young guy with a contractor's license." Dave came right out and the damage was fixed before Carol's parents came home. Her parents approved, of the work and of Dave!
Carol and Dave very shortly began dating and married in 1975 on Treasure Island courtesy of Carol's father being a retired Navy officer. They moved into the small Fremont house in Irvington that Dave had bought at the young age of 21. They enjoyed their pre-children years going to restaurants and rock concerts, like Day on the Green for Joe Walsh and more, the Keystone in Berkeley for Elvin Bishop, the Longbranch in Berkeley for the Tubes and Winterland for Bruce Springsteen. They visited Universal Studios and the newly opened Magic Mountain, and took their dog Benji with them camping at Kings Canyon.
In 1977 they purchased a fixer-upper in the Warm Springs neighborhood of Fremont. Like many contractors, prioritizing the building of his own home sort of took the back burner, and he jokingly called his house the Winchester Mystery House, since he was never finished building it and would come up with unique design features along the way!
Dave was busy with his construction business, doing both residential and commercial construction throughout the entire Bay Area. Many of his projects can be seen today, like the ADA ramp on the Patterson House in Ardenwood Historic Farm, numerous Pizza Hut Restaurants, Zorba's Deli Cafes, Supercuts, Martin's Beauty Supplies and Subway Sandwich shops, residential room additions, and so many more. He made friends easily with people from all walks of life and would often become friends with his clients.
In 1982 his daughter Kristin was born and in 1983 came another daughter Lauren. Dave was a fun and involved dad, coaching softball teams and attending soccer games, swim and track meets and Band concerts. Even after he broke both feet in a work accident and was in a wheelchair, he helped Kristin practice softball pitching in the street. Also, while injured he built himself a wheelchair ramp in his house so he could get to his office one step down.
Dave had great luck with winning raffles and concert tickets. His scores included winning a vacation to Manzanillo, Mexico and VIP tickets for dinner with a Bruce Hornsby and the Range concert plus limo. Dave enjoyed attending Oakland A's games with his family and with his brothers and their families. He used any excuse to drive up to Oakland to go to Fenton's for ice cream or to Hayward or San Leandro for Old South Barbeque. In recent years he enjoyed going to dinner and live concerts at Yoshi's with our good friends and neighbors.
Dave was a general building contractor since 1974 and he experienced all the highs and all the lows that go along with owning your own business. He had confidence though which helped him go forward with his demanding work. And he always took us on fabulous vacations to Hawaii, Disneyland, Disney World, camping in Yosemite, New York, skiing and snowboarding, Mexico and more.
Dave was a foodie and knew all the great spots and best food trucks. Music was a passion of his as well. If his radio wasn't on, he was likely watching the A's, Raiders, 49ers (when the Raiders were in LA!) or Warriors play, or watching reruns of Bonanza, The Twilight Zone or Seinfeld. Dave listened to everything from Alligator Records collections to Peter Gabriel to rock and soul. Some of his favorite bands were Tower of Power, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Huey Lewis and the News, the Allman Brothers, and The Police, to name just a few. He taught himself how to play the harmonica and loved to play along to his favorite songs. He and a friend even opened a music store in Fremont in the 1990's called Tune Town.
Dave would always make us laugh like when he and his family were at the Medieval Times bar in southern California in 2005. When asked for his order he said "I'll have a Newcastle. My old castle is crumbling." Corny yes but we laughed and laughed! He was always a goofy guy. He could have a temper, but nonetheless he was a funny guy.
In the late 2000's, Dave began to have trouble seeing and was forgetting how to do things that were always second nature to him. Unfortunately he would be diagnosed with Posterior Cortical Atrophy, a rare form of Alzheimer's Disease. If he could he would want to thank all who helped and supported him and his family over these last many years. Dave passed away from the disease peacefully in his home that he built on June 9th, 2020 at the age of 67.
Dave is survived by his wife Carol, his daughters Kristin and Lauren, sons in law Dan and Josh, and his grandsons Jonathan, Asher, William and Elliott, as well as his sisters Jill and Bonnie in Utah, brother Kent in Martinez, CA, and brother Randy in Virginia. He was predeceased by his sister Laurie. Dave will be remembered as funny, talented, hard-working, generous, creative, honest, and as a good father, husband, son, brother, neighbor and friend.


View the online memorial for David Grant Hawkins