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Anthony John Hawkins\u201486\u2014known to everyone as Tony, passed away peacefully at Elderwood Nursing Facility in Hornell (April 30, 2018), following a two-month illness.<\/p>\nAnthony John Hawkins\u201486\u2014known to everyone as Tony, passed away peacefully at Elderwood Nursing Facility in Hornell (April 30, 2018), following a two-month illness.<\/p>\n
Tony was born to Walter and Mary (Scoon) Hawkins on July 7, 1931 in Bristol, England, where he grew up an only child.\u00a0 Little is known about his early life.\u00a0 From sixteen to nineteen he took evening classes in math, physics and chemistry at a local technical college.\u00a0 David Rossington of Alfred met Tony in the early 1950\u2019s at Bristol University where David was a student and Tony was an apprentice glass blower, learning the techniques of the trade that would support him the rest of his life.\u00a0 (See the picture above showing Tony at work at the College of Ceramics in Alfred at age 37.)<\/p>\n
Tony served in the English Army from 1952 – 1954, followed by years as a glassblower at the University of Nottingham, University of British Columbia (Vancouver) and finally at Alfred University where Tony was the laboratory glass blower at the College of Ceramics from 1960 to 1983, when he retired.\u00a0 Tony had a rare ability to fashion molten glass, whether it became a piece of laboratory apparatus or an intricate animal given to a child or sold at Mary Lou Cartledge\u2019s gift shop in Alfred.<\/p>\n
In his youth at Vancouver and Alfred, Tony was an enthusiastic skier, a pursuit that unfortunately ended when an auto accident damaged his left knee in 1968.<\/p>\n
A lifelong bachelor, Tony lived alone at 4960 East Valley Road, halfway between Alfred Station and Andover, for most of his fifty-eight years in the Alfred area.\u00a0 Tony loved movies and classical music, having an encyclopedic knowledge of both.\u00a0 In the years when Juilliard came to Alfred for summer concerts, Tony rarely missed one.\u00a0 When computers became popular, Tony quickly became adept, programming a Wine Grape Glossary still in use on the internet and establishing himself as a wine expert.\u00a0 He loved food, having a passion for cookbooks and recipes.\u00a0 For years he belonged to a group of gourmets who met once a month at a top notch restaurant for a meal.\u00a0 In later years he was an enthusiastic member of a bridge club in Hornell.<\/p>\n
My wife and I (David and Aurora Palmer) met Tony around 1990 and were close friends for the rest of his life.\u00a0 I spent many happy hours with Tony \u201cpicking apart\u201d current events, wine, movies and the colorful life of Richard Feynman, one of our mutual heroes.\u00a0 Recently Tony and I watched a ten-week series on the life of Einstein at Tony\u2019s home.\u00a0\u00a0 He will be greatly missed.<\/p>\n
At sometime around 2010 Tony befriended Joan Speca, recently widowed and making a difficult adjustment to the loss of her husband.\u00a0 He and Joan became constant companions.\u00a0 He saw her through the difficulties of Alzheimer\u2019s disease, handling her affairs and adopting her dog Sasha until Joan\u2019s and Sasha\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Since Tony\u2019s passion for food did not include a strong desire to cook, he ate most meals at the Collegiate Restaurant (fondly nicknamed the Jet) after coming to Alfred in 1960.\u00a0 There he was on the first stool at the near end of the counter\u2014three times a day in the early years, twice a day later on.\u00a0 At some point Tony\u2019s name was placed on the stool top, where it still stands.\u00a0 Tony made friends at the Jet\u2014two generations of owners (John Senior and Angie Ninos, then John-John and Chelly Ninos), Bob Heineman and many others.\u00a0 For several months before Tony\u2019s death my wife Aurora and I took him weekly to the Duke House (patterned after an English Tea House) in Wellsville for Sunday brunch.\u00a0 Tony greatly appreciated its atmosphere, its tea and the hospitality of Nancy, Ruben and John.<\/p>\n
At Tony\u2019s request, there will be no calling hours or formal services.\u00a0 Friends are invited to attend a \u201cscattering of ashes\u201d on Saturday, May 19 at 2:00 PM at Tony\u2019s home at 4960 East Valley Road, Alfred Station. Please come prepared to share stories and memories.<\/p>\n
Funeral arrangements are in care of the Dagon Funeral Home, 38 Church Street, Hornell, NY.<\/p>\n
In lieu of flowers, friends are asked to consider making a donation in Tony\u2019s memory to any worthwhile charity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anthony John Hawkins\u201486\u2014known to everyone as Tony, passed away peacefully at Elderwood Nursing Facility in Hornell (April 30, 2018), following a two-month illness. Tony was born to Walter and Mary (Scoon) Hawkins on July 7, 1931 in Bristol, England, where he grew up an only child.\u00a0 Little is known about his early life.\u00a0 From sixteen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3215,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3213\/revisions\/3215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}