Update: Florida A&M University’s former Journalism School Dean has died.
In 2010 former FAMU Journalism Dean James Hawkins was named educator of the year by the National Association of Black Journalists. He retired from FAMU in late 2012 after 35 years. In a video made for Hawkins for his retirement celebration former students, friends and colleagues recalled him as being a hands-on, student-centered dean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7F_CERihAP0
“He could remember all the student’s names, past and present. And a lot of the students, he had a story to go with their names," said Valerie White, Division Director of Journalism in the School of Journalism and Graphic Communication at FAMU.
“I’m in his office sometimes, and a student would call and he’d say, ‘you remember her’, and I’d have to say, ‘no, I don’t. But Dr. Hawkins had a personal relationship with almost all his students.”
Hawkins is credited with overseeing the completion of the Journalism School’s $25 million facility which was finished in 2005. Joe Ritchie, the school’s outgoing Knight Chair in Journalism says Hawkins also helped bring the school’s curriculum up-to-date to match current industry trends:
“I chaired the journalism division and school wide committee, and we’d stumbled over it for quite a while and they were sorely needed given the pace the industry was changing. He kind of shepherded that through," Ritchie said.
Hawkins contributed to an effort to bring the Journalism school, one of the university’s hallmark programs back into compliance when it was placed on accreditation probation. Hawkins died in Macon, Georgia of a heart attack. According to a family spokesperson, while driving back to Tallahassee from Atlanta, Hawkins stopped to meet with a former student. He was found unresponsive in the parking lot of a restaurant where the two were supposed to meet. Hawkins’ wife is Leon County Judge Judith Hawkins. Funeral arrangements will be announced at a later time. Hawkins was 64.
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James Hawkins, former dean of the Florida A&M University School of Journalism, has died.
Hawkins retired last year as Dean of the FAMU Journalism School.
According to family spokeswoman Kim Godwin, Hawkins was traveling back from Atlanta and decided to meet with a former student in Macon, Georgia.
"He texted the former student at 3:18 to say he had arrived, but when he had not come inside the restaurant by 3:30, she went outside to look for him and found him unresponsive in his car. When EMT's arrived, he could not be revived and was pronounced dead at a local hospital".
Hawkins died of a heart attack.
His wife is Leon County judge, Judith Hawkins.
Check back later on for more on this story.
