Hawkins, Willis M.

Willis Moore Hawkins (1913-2004) was born in Kansas City, Missouri on 1 December 1913. As the only child of Willis Moore Hawkins, Sr. and Elizabeth Daniels, who divorced shortly after his birth, Willis was raised by his mother. He was one of five students in the first graduating class of Leelanau School, an experimental high school in Glen Harbor, Michigan that emphasized the outdoors and science. After earning his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1937, he began a career that would span over 60 years at Lockheed Aircraft Company, starting as a junior detail engineering draftsman in Burbank, California.

Hawkins advanced through a number of key engineering positions at Lockheed, becoming engineering department manager in 1944 and chief preliminary design engineer in 1949. From 1953 to 1957 he was director of engineering at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company (LMSC), a division he helped to found. He became Assistant General Manager in 1957, Corporate Vice President in 1960, and Vice President and General Manager of LMSC Space Systems Division in 1961. He served as Lockheed Aircraft Corporation's Vice President-Science and Engineering from 1962 to 1963 and 1966 to 1969, then advanced to Senior Vice President-Science and Engineering and was elected a member of the Board of Directors in 1972. Although he took early retirement in 1974, he remained with Lockheed as a senior advisor and board member and in 1976 returned as Senior Vice President and President of the Lockheed-California Company, a position he retained until 1979. From 1979 to early 1980 he served the corporation as Senior Vice President-Aircraft, from which he again retired but remained as Corporate Senior Advisor until his death in 2004.

During his long Lockheed career, Hawkins played a major role in the design and development of airplanes, missile systems, and space vehicles. He served as a structural component designer on the P-38 Lightning fighter, the Hudson bomber, and the Lodestar transport. He contributed significantly in the design of high-speed fighters such as the P-80 Shooting Star (first U.S jet fighter), F-104 Starfighter (supersonic interceptor aircraft), and transports such as the C-130 Hercules, Constitution, and Constellation. He directed the formation of Lockheed's first major organization for Weapon System Analysis, which defined the optimum anti-submarine warfare systems with the support of the Office of Naval Research. He also directed the pilotless aircraft division and led the development of the X-7 ramjet test vehicle and X-17 reentry test vehicle, which formed the basis for the formation of LMSC. As chief engineer and then as assistant general manager of the Missiles and Space Division, he led the advanced design teams that developed the concepts leading to the Navy's Polaris submarine launched ballistic missile as well as the Agena space vehicle and Discoverer program.

In addition to his work at Lockheed, Hawkins contributed his ideas and advice to the government, military, and industry establishments through his consulting for a variety of private and public institutions, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Army, the Navy, the Department of Defense (DoD), and the National Research Council (NRC). With the NASA he served as a member of the Space Program Advisory Council (SPAC) from 1974 to 1978, as a member, then Chairman of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) between 1975 and 1984, and as a member of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) from 1977 to 1983. He was a member of the NRC Naval Studies Board (NSB) from 1982 to1986 and 1988 to1992, member, then Chairman of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) from 1967 to 1975, and a member of the NAE Space Applications Board (SAB) from 1975-1978. He was also Vice-Chairman (1970) and Chairman (1971) of the Aerospace Industry Association (AIA) Aerospace Technical Council and, in 1979, Chairman of the Defense Science Board of the Department of Defense.

Hawkins married Anita Stanfill on 22 June 1940; they had three children, Nancy Gay (Bostick) (b. 1943), Willis M. III (b. 1945), and James Walter (b.1956). Widowed in 1982, Hawkins remarried Fredericka Betts in 1984 and later divorced in 1990. He died at his home in Woodland Hills, California on September 28, 2004 of natural causes at the age of 90.

From the description of Papers of Willis M. Hawkins, 1949-1998. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 743238086