Robert Charles Hawkes
Achievements
Adaptive Sports Hall of FameRobert is one of the trailblazers in wheelchair sports, having competed in seven different Stoke Mandeville Games in England in the 1960s. He was also a member of the 1960 U.S. Paralympic Team in Rome, Tokyo in 1964, and Israel in 1968. His travels also took him to competitions in South Africa, Rhodesia, Austria, and France.
Robert was honored as the first athlete with a disability inducted into four separate Halls of Fame. In addition to the NWAA induction in 1972, Robert was inducted in 1977 into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame; the New England Wheelchair Sports Hall of Fame in 1999; and entered the Springfield (MA) College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Springfield College and his master’s from the University of Illinois.
Robert achieved many awards as an athlete. He was the Outstanding Male Athlete at the Bay State Games in 1971; Outstanding Male Master Athlete at the Southeastern Regional Games (1987, 1988, 1990, 1993); and Outstanding Master Athlete at the Orlando Wheelchair Games (1987, 1988, 1990, 1991). Robert won six gold medals in swimming at the 1994 National Wheelchair Games and three gold medals in track at the 2000 Florida Senior Games. In 1997 (at the age of 75), he took home one gold and two silvers in swimming at the DSUSA International Games.
Robert was a charter member of the Board of Directors of the National Wheelchair Athletic Association, a post he held until 1980. He served as secretary of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Wheelchair Sports Fund and served as chairman of the NWAA Swimming Committee for seventeen years.