Hawkinson, Calvin F., 1915-

Calvin F. Hawkinson, the son of Carl F. and Laura C. Hawkinson, was born in St. Paul on October 17, 1915. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1933 and was employed by Butler Bros., a general wholesale company in Minneapolis, from 1933 until he entered police work in April of 1942.

As he admits in his reminiscences, police work was not Hawkinson's first choice for a career. He stated that he had taken every civil service examination for which he was eligible and upon passing the patrolman's exam was offered an appointment in the 6th Precinct of the Minneapolis Police Department, which he accepted and which began his highly successful 36-year career as a law enforcement officer.

From March of 1945 through April of 1946, Hawkinson served in the U.S. Navy at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois as a pharmacist's mate. Upon discharge, Hawkinson returned to the 6th Precinct's Minnehaha Station where he was later transferred to headquarters as a temporary plainclothes detective and was then promoted to the rank of sergeant on April 18, 1948.

On January 18, 1949, having placed first in the exams, Hawkinson advanced to the rank of detective and was assigned to the homicide squad with Roger Rydland and Joe Rusinko as his partners under Captain Eugene Bernath. On August 21, 1953, again having placed first in exams, Hawkinson was named captain of the uniformed force at the 1st Precinct. In August of 1954 he was asked to direct the department's training division and one year later he was promoted to deputy inspector. In December of 1956, Hawkinson advanced to the rank of detective captain and headed the department's homicide and sex division. Wishing to return to more investigative duties, Hawkinson was appointed as the inspector of detectives in August of 1961. In January of 1964 Hawkinson was appointed by Mayor Arthur Naftalin to succeed E. I. Walling as chief of the department. In 1968, after a 24-year career in Minneapolis, Hawkinson accepted the position as chief of the Plymouth Police Department where he remained for 11 years until he retired at the end of 1978.

While a member of the Minneapolis police force, Hawkinson received 11 departmental commendations and numerous awards from private organizations. A statement made by Mayor Arthur Naftalin upon Hawkinson's retirement from Minneapolis in 1968 summarizes Hawkinson's priorities and accomplishments as a law enforcement officer (Scrapbook 7, p. 28). Naftalin noted Hawkinson for his emphasis upon police training, for developing procedural manuals, and for creating a community relations unit and training police in civil disorder prevention and control at a time when racial and civil disturbances were increasing.

Hawkinson married Marian J. Fink, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Fink, of Wahpeton, North Dakota on April 25, 1938. They had two children, a daughter, Joan Laurel (Hawkinson) Shasky, born in 1939 and a son, Richard C. Hawkinson, born in 1943.

Biographical information was taken from the collection.

From the guide to the Calvin F. Hawkinson papers., 1942-1995., (Minnesota Historical Society)