Inducted in 2011
Prep Teacher & Coach (1958-2005)
Volunteer, Rosary Hill Hospice, Hawthorne, NY
Father of Two Prep Graduates

Induction Video

Robert Hawthorn was a legend both at Fordham Prep and Fordham University. He served on the Fordham Prep faculty for nearly 50 years, coaching golf along the way. At Fordham University, he coached tennis and squash for decades — a true icon in Fordham athletics.

Bob was born in 1931 to William Hawthorn, a dentist, and Maizie Coleman Hawthorn, a homemaker. He attended All Hallows Grammar and High Schools in the Bronx, going on to Fordham University, from which he graduated in 1953.

During his Rose Hill years, Hawthorn excelled in racquet sports. In 1956, after a tour of duty as an officer with the US Air Force, Bob was hired to coach squash at the University by none other than Jack Coffey, one of the all-time great University and Prep coaches, for whom Coffey Field on the Rose Hill Campus is named. In 1958, Bob was appointed coach of the varsity tennis team, in an era when the courts were clay, and the team often had to travel to the New York Athletic Club in New Rochelle, New York to practice.

That same year, Bob joined the Prep faculty as a member of the Math Department, but not without a hiccup along the way — a story he would tell many times over the years. He was about to sign a contract with the Yonkers Public School System, but when he got to the administration office, he suddenly became aware of a strange hollowness in the pit of his stomach, and he realized that something was wrong — that place was just not the place for him. Puzzled and embarrassed by his reaction, he apologized to the gentleman he was meeting and returned home to the Bronx. On the way home after this odd experience, he wondered what his plan should be and questioned where his life was taking him. He did not have to wait long for an answer.   In fact, he would not have to wait at all.  Arriving home from Yonkers, his mother told him that a certain Fr. Costello had just called regarding a job opening at Fordham Preparatory School.

The rest, as they say, is history. Incidentally, the date was July 31st, the Feast of St. Ignatius. In the words of Bob's daughter Ann, “He believed in following your heart and also taking risks” — a philosophy he lived throughout his life.

In 1960, early on in his incredible 47-year tenure, Bob would earn a master's degree from Fordham University.  During , he would leave an impression on many a Prep student — academically as well as personally. For a mathematics teacher, there can be no higher praise than the words of Dennis Marks, PhD, Class of 1962, a professor in the Departments of Physics, Astronomy and Geosciences at Valdosta State University in Georgia: “I fondly remember Bob Hawthorn teaching freshman algebra. He also coached squash, which he put to good use maintaining order in the algebra class with a volley of well-placed erasers zinging across the room. Great algebra teacher! I still use skills learned from him in my research on geometric algebra and space-time physics.”

Nearly 40 years after Marks' Prep days, the ever well-dressed and gentlemanly Hawthorn was still making a mark on the boys is his classes. “I remember very well how he insisted on making our class watch the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor,” recalled Matthew Daily, Class of 2001. “Mr. Hawthorn was one of my favorite teachers in high school and beyond. Though he was a great math teacher, I also learned much about American history and life in general from him. I will always remember him fondly.” 

Hawthorn retired from the Prep faculty in 2005.

While Bob had been inducted into the Fordham University Athletic Hall of Fame some two decades earlier, in 1999, the outdoor tennis courts at the University were renamed the Hawthorn-Rooney Courts in his honor and that of John "Pat" Rooney, the former women’s coach. In 2006, Bob was inducted into the College Squash Association Hall of Fame, and at the same time, the Association created the Hawthorn Championship Division in his honor. As one of the last people hired by the legendary Jack Coffey at the University, Bob must have been proud to be the 2010 Jack Coffey Award recipient. When he retired from the University in 2010, he had served for 54 years: the longest tenure of any coach in Fordham history.

These details of awards and honors highlight just a portion of the man that Bob Hawthorn was. In the mid-1980s, he became a registered nurse, enabling him to volunteer at Rosary Hill, a hospice facility for cancer patients who have no way to pay for their own care. Former students and team members remember his skills as a teacher and coach, but for most of them, Hawthorn left an even stronger impression with his generosity, integrity and humanity; with his penchant for hard work; and with his respect for others —an unfailing advocate for fair play and living as a gentleman.

One Fordham Prep grad who would become a tennis coach himself remarked that Bob was a “life guide” as much as a tennis coach: “What a life! Even George Bailey of It’s a Wonderful Life would be jealous!” Another former student simply wrote, “He taught us how to be men; he taught us about family.”

Bob married Eileen Eustace in 1959; they had eight children: Robert, William, John,  Eileen, Elizabeth, Ann, Mary and Vincent Charles. William and John graduated the Prep in 1979 and 1981. The rest of the Hawthorn children, sons and daughters alike, all had their own Fordham careers — on and off the court — at the University.

Together with Eileen, Bob enjoyed farming trees at their family home in Middletown, New Jersey, and spending time with their grandchildren.

Robert W. Hawthorn passed away in March of 2011.