Because so little is known about frontotemporal dementia, Hawkinson will donate his brain to Northwestern University for research, Cathi Hawkinson said.<\/p>\n
Friends and former colleagues spoke about Hawkinson on Friday.<\/p>\n
Mike Dimmick, news anchor at WEEK-TV who was hired by Hawkinson in September 1982 as a weekend sports anchor when Hawkinson was the news director, said Hawkinson’s demeanor and steady hand set the standard for news directors at WEEK. “His calm as a leader became a major part of our newsroom culture. It has become a kind of News 25 tradition.”<\/p>\n
Dimmick replaced Hawkinson as pronouncer of the Spelling Bee.<\/p>\n
“It means a lot to me because Jeff asked me to do it. It was his pride and joy, and I want to preserve his legacy when I’m doing it,” he said.<\/p>\n
Before television, Hawkinson worked in local radio, including at WMBD-FM (now known as Big Oldies 93.3). He got his broadcasting start at Bradley University, where he worked on the student radio station while majoring in communications. During his senior year at Bradley, he was student senate president.<\/p>\n
He taught broadcast news at Illinois State University for a while and founded TV-10, the student-run television station, in 1973. The university in 2004 named the TV-10 Founders Award after Hawkinson.<\/p>\n
Hawkinson joined Caterpillar Inc. in 1986 and became the company’s national spokesman. Later, he anchored Caterpillar’s in-house televised news, which was broadcast daily to Caterpillar facilities around the world.<\/p>\n
“We are saddened to hear of the death of Jeff Hawkinson, and we extend our thoughts, prayers and well wishes to Jeff’s family and friends,” said Caterpillar spokesman Jim Dugan. “Jeff leaves behind a legacy of professionalism in his work at Caterpillar, particularly in the area of video communications, where he developed and pioneered some of the company’s early video communications vehicles.”<\/p>\n
Hawkinson mentored other Caterpillar employees, said John Disharoon, manager of sustainable development at Caterpillar.<\/p>\n
“He was the consummate professional. He taught by example. As a communications professional, I can’t even begin to state what kind of impact he had in Peoria,” he said.<\/p>\n
Disharoon said Hawkinson was always willing to help others improve their communications skills. “He was so even-keeled. I never heard him talk down to anybody, rather he would encourage them. Everybody who knew Jeff has a fond memory.”<\/p>\n
Cathi Hawkinson said that’s because his friends and colleagues meant so much to him. “Jeff never sought a pat on the back for himself, but he truly loved it when his friends or colleagues succeeded.”<\/p>\n
There will be no conventional funeral. Rather, abiding by his wishes, the family will host friends with what it is calling “Jeff’s Happy Hour” from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday, March 6, at the Peoria Art Guild.<\/p>\n
Paul Gordon can be reached at 686-3288 or pgordon@pjstar.com.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Read the original article from Journal Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services<\/a><\/p>\n For nearly a quarter of a century, on most Saturday mornings in March, many in central Illinois would tune in to WEEK-TV to watch the different rounds of the Journal Star Spelling Bee. They would see the ever-present grin and hear the calming voice of Jeff Hawkinson, host and pronouncer of the local spelling bee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-368214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a>
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