By the family

Jan. 26, 2022: Frederic (Ted) Hyde Hawkins, a resident of Bronxville for more than fifty years, died peacefully at his home in Sarasota, FL on January 15, 2022. He was 88 years old.

The child of Stuart Hyde and Elizabeth Kirkham Hawkins, Ted was born in Vermont and raised in Weston, CT. He graduated from Dartmouth College and was commissioned Lt. (JG) in the US Navy in 1955. He married Priscilla Finn in 1957, and after leaving the Navy in 1958, settled in her hometown of Bronxville.

After a long career in marketing and advertising, Ted began a second career, earning his Master’s degree at Manhattanville College, and teaching at the Westchester Business Institute. At WBI, he guided the development of a general education curriculum that helped WBI become The College of Westchester. Ted retired in 2002 as WBI’s first professor emeritus.

More than his career, Ted was passionate about his family - his wife Priscilla (who died in 2004), their daughters Barrie Sokmensuer (Hakan), Cynthia Guarino (John), and Faith Hawkins (Glenda Schulz), and 6 grandchildren for whom he was their beloved Dandy.

Many knew him as the leader for three decades of the Bronxville Field Club (BFC) and Lawrence Hilltop Association Christmas Carol Sings, cheerfully turning the Twelve Days of Christmas into a competitive sport in which everyone was a winner.

Among other contributions to his community, Ted served on the Vestry of Christ Church, the boards of Jansen Memorial Hospice, the Bronxville Field Club, and as president of the board of Southgate Apartments.

Ted was a voracious reader, a dapper dresser, a gentleman scholar who could (and did!) speak knowledgeably about history, politics, naval strategies and the New York Times Crossword puzzle (which he always completed in pen). He was a constant presence on the tennis and paddle courts of the BFC, and later, on golf courses from Lake Isle to Florida.

He loved to laugh, treasured his friends, and felt keenly how richly he was blessed by community, friends, and family. He never met a stranger and was adopted by his daughters’ friends and grandchildren’s friends as everyone’s Dandy. Even to the end of his life, his upbeat attitude and kindness to all made him beloved by everyone.

Details about a memorial gathering this summer will be announced later. In lieu of flowers, donations in Ted’s name can be made to the Priscilla Hawkins Scholarship Fund at Sarah Lawrence College (https://www.sarahlawrence.edu/giving/).