Dr. John Alan Hawkinson

1932 - 2025

John Alan Hawkinson died at home on February 27, 2025. John was born in Minneapolis, MN, on September 10, 1932. He was the second of the five children of Raymond Paul Hawkinson and Ruth Olson Hawkinson. Although he grew up in Minnesota, John's father was an Army Airforce physician during World War II, so the family moved with him to various postings in the US, including Spokane, WA, Pacific Grove, CA, and Ogden, UT.

John graduated from The Blake School in Hopkins, MN, in 1950, Yale University in New Haven, CT, in 1954, and Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA, in 1958. After an internship at Hamot Hospital in Erie, PA, and service in the US Navy as a Lieutenant and Medical Officer, he completed his Residency and Master of Science in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Temple University.

While he was studying at Yale, John also pursued his love of sailing, which had its beginnings on the lakes of Minnesota. He and a group of like-minded undergraduate sailors formed a circle that they dubbed the Bilge Boy's Union. Their ties of friendship remained strong through the decades and grew to include spouses, children, and grandchildren, who still gather from time to time for large house parties called Perloos.

In the fall of his senior year at Yale, John and the Bilge Boys went up to sail at Tufts

University for a weekend. One of his friends was dating a girl from Wellesley College, who arranged dates for the other sailors. John had a blind date with a young freshman named Martha (Marsie) Levering. As Nancy Horsfield told her college little sister, "You got the redhead." John and Marsie were married in June of 1955 at Lansdowne Pennsylvania Friends Meeting and started their family while he was still a medical student.

Sailing also brought the Hawkinsons to Maryland's Eastern Shore. One of the Bilge Boys had grown up in Denton and brought his friends down to the Shore to sail. A memorable weekend in 1956 included sailing on the log canoe, Island Bird, with the North family. At the wedding of yet another Bilge Boy in Talbot County, John met J. Tyler Baker, MD, who asked him to come join his Obstetrics and Gynecology practice in Easton. John, Marsie, and their three children moved to Easton in 1964.

John loved being a doctor and helping his patients. He practiced Obstetrics and Gynecology as a member of the Medical Staff of The Memorial Hospital at Easton from 1964 through 2000. During that time, he served the local medical community in various roles, including Department Chief for Obstetrics and Gynecology at Memorial Hospital, Chief of Staff for Memorial Hospital, Chairman of the Credentials and Bylaws Committee for Memorial Hospital, and Board of Directors of Memorial Hospital. He also served in leadership roles for the Maryland Obstetrics and Gynecology Society, The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland, and the Maryland Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Never one to be idle, when he retired from medicine, John first taught himself Morse Code and became a Ham Radio Operator and was active in the local radio club with their many volunteer activities, including servicing yearly Half Marathons and Triathlons. His son-in-law, Joe, taught him to weld, and he enjoyed their sculpture building sessions. He then took up boat building in a big way. For six years, he and Sidney Dickson worked together to build the bugeye, Katherine May Edwards. Then, for the next six years, he volunteered as an assistant instructor in the Apprentice for a Day Program at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. John clearly saw these ventures as his next career, putting in full work weeks, complete with packed lunches.

John felt a strong affinity for the work of the Yale Peabody Museum, a natural history museum in New Haven, CT, where he was a member of the Leadership Council for over 20 years. He enjoyed traveling up to New Haven by train to spend weekends immersed in fascinating meetings and lectures.

John was forever curious and an avid reader of the news, history, art, literature, and much more, often having two to three books going at once. He was quiet and observant, had a dry sense of humor, and could throw in a zinger right when least expected. At the end of dinner on a nightly basis he would declare "Bring on the Lemon Meringue Pie!" knowing full well there was no such pie. He loved dogs and had one or more beside him for most of his life.

More recently, John focused on activities closer to home, many involving Third Haven Friends Meeting in Easton. He was Clerk of the Meeting's Communications Committee for many years. His last big project was to systematically catalog and index the Burial Ground at Third Haven, which includes graves going back to the 17th century.

Most of all, John loved his family. Family vacations frequently found the five Hawkinsons exploring the Chesapeake Bay aboard John's dream boat, a 37' Meadowlark ketch called Earlybird. John and Marsie always took great pride in the lives of their children and grandchildren, encouraging and supporting all of them in pursuing their interests. In recent years, nothing made John happier than the times that he and Marsie were visited by their three children, Kristen, Paul (Cassie), and Katie (Joe), all staying together in the house they built for the family in 1967.

In addition to Marsie, his wife of almost 70 years, John is survived by his children, Kristen, of Easton, MD, and El Cerrito, CA, Paul (Cassie) of Washington, NC, and Katie (Joe) of Berkeley, CA, his grandchildren, Griffith Hawkinson of Charlotte, NC, and Josephine Hawkinson of Washington, NC, two of his sisters, Paula Rooks of Warren, RI, and Karen Bicknell of New Hampton, NH, and numerous nephews and nieces.

A memorial service will be held at Third Haven Friends Meeting at a date to be determined.

In lieu of flowers, donations in John's memory my be made to The Third Haven Friends Meeting.

For updated service information, please visit: www.fhnfuneralhome.com