ASU President talks life, career in the military and educators that inspired him into leadership

SAN ANGELO, Texas — We are celebrating Black History Month and following up with ASU’s first Black president, Ronnie Hawkins.

Hawkins and his family moved to San Angelo in 1969 because his father was in the military.

He graduated from Central High School and Angelo State University. Hawkins said passion for education began at a young age.

“The passion for education started when I was in junior high, in middle school here and I love my teachers. I enjoyed my coaches that I had that taught me about discipline and not discipline from a negative-positive perspective, but discipline…from a structured perspective discipline, from critical thinking,” he said.

Hawkins married his high school sweetheart and served in the military for decades, working with students in the Air Force Academy.

He became ASU’s first Black president in August of 2020.

“I won’t take anything away from being the first Black president here. But that was not my aspiration. My aspiration was to be here to serve and to do good while I’m here serving. And all of those things go back into how I’ve been taught. My parents, my coaches, my wife — all of those experiences come into play here about who I am as a president, but more importantly, as an individual,” he said.

Hawkins said his mission is to serve God and his family and continue to bring success to ASU. And he said he’s already looking to the future — 2028 will be the school’s centennial celebration.

“We have a vision that we want to be known as an innovative university by the end of this decade. We happen to believe we’re already an innovative university, but we have that vision. And that requires us to be good in education and economics and cultural opportunities that come our way. And we feel we’re on track to get that done,” he said.

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