As Olivia Hawkins Wallace, BA 2013, puts it, one of the first things people learned when they met her father Kenneth W. “Ken” Hawkins, EE 1981, was that he was a Yellow Jacket. “He was very proud of his Georgia Tech degree, and he credited Tech for his success,” she said. 

After Ken died unexpectedly in October 2023, Olivia and her mother, Patti Hawkins, decided to establish an endowed scholarship fund in memory of Ken. They also made an outright gift for the scholarship, so that as the endowment builds, the scholarship can be immediately awarded. Recipients will be undergraduate students with financial need who are from Georgia, with first preference for those who live outside the metro Atlanta area. 

Patti said, “We love the idea that in Ken’s name, we can support students who need a little extra help. We’re very excited about it and can’t wait to meet the first scholarship recipient.” 

She added, “I think Ken would be pleased.” 

Known for his upbeat nature, innate kindness, and gifted storytelling abilities, Ken could find common ground with anyone. He grew up in an Air Force family and lived all over the U.S. before his family eventually settled in Bonaire, Georgia, when he was in high school. Ken graduated from Warner Robins High School as the Class of 1976 valedictorian before enrolling at the one university he applied to — Georgia Tech. He helped cover the costs of his college education by participating in the co-op program, working at IBM in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

After graduation, Ken joined AT&T with a team that eventually operated as Southern Bell, later becoming BellSouth. He earned his MBA from the University of Alabama in 1994. During his career as a telecommunications executive, he held many roles in South Georgia, Birmingham, Chicago, and Atlanta. Ken retired from Cisco in 2020. 

Ken and Patti met at Second Baptist Church of Warner Robins and married in 1985. They eventually settled with Olivia in Stockbridge in 1997. From a young age, Olivia remembers her father encouraging her to follow in his footsteps to Georgia Tech. The decision to attend Georgia Tech was her own, though, and like her father, Olivia applied to the one school. 

Ken was a fixture on campus during Olivia’s college years. She has fond memories of her father dragging her to his favorite breakfast spot on campus — Brittain Dining Hall — as well as attending football and basketball games together. The two were each other’s companions for the President’s Dinner. 

In September 2023, Ken excitedly welcomed his new son-in-law, Kevin Wallace, BA 2014, to the family. He was even more excited that Kevin also was a Georgia Tech graduate and an excellent cook. 

Olivia said, “There’s no replacing a parental figure ever. There’s certainly no replacing Ken Hawkins because he was a force in and of himself. Our sense of urgency for getting this scholarship set up so quickly was knowing that this is what he would have wanted. He would have wanted to support students and for that to start right away. To have a student benefiting from this scholarship less than a year after Dad passed away brings some closure for us in the grieving process. It’s also a way to make something positive out of this, which was always what Dad would have wanted.” 

The Ken Hawkins Scholarship will perpetuate Ken’s legacy and benefit Georgia Tech students for generations to come.