Stories
Stories
Rod Hawes and Dean Clark had time to chat before the dedication ceremony. Photo: Richard Chase
Two of the Hawes grandchildren join the festivities in the Dean's House garden. Photo: Richard Chase
A behind-the-scenes tour of Hawes Hall highlighted building's powerful technololgy. Photo: Richard Chase
The building features 2,000 square feet of informal gathering space on each floor. Photo: Edward Jacoby
Following lunch at the Dean's House members of the Hawes family went next door to see the new building, which is adjacent to the norhteast corner of Aldrich Hall. Hawes Hall completes the third side of the Aldrich forecourt, creating a courtyard in the Frederick Law Olmstead tradition. Photo: Richard Chase
Beverly and Rod Hall enjoyed a proud moment in a new classroom. Photo: Richard Chase
On a sunny Friday at the end of April, close to forty members of the Hawes family and some two hundred HBS faculty, staff, students, and alumni gathered to celebrate the opening of the School's newest academic building, Hawes Hall. Featuring eight amphitheater-style classrooms equipped with state-of-the-art technology, Hawes Hall is a gift from Beverly and Rodney A. Hawes, Jr. (MBA '69), both of whom delivered thoughtful and inspiring remarks at the dedication ceremony.
Stressing his ultimate desire that the building will help the business community identify and solve worldwide problems, Rodney Hawes expressed his hope that, in addition to the generations of MBA and Executive Education students who will attend classes in Hawes Hall, the School's teaching mission will be greatly enhanced by the technology in the building, including videoconferencing, teleconferencing, Webcast, and broadcast capabilities. Hawes was filled with emotion as he recounted how his entrepreneurial parents always managed to put food on the table — for their children as well as for complete strangers — despite their humble circumstances. From his parents, Hawes said he learned three lessons: the importance of family, the brotherhood of all humans, and the value of education. “I believe my parents are looking down on us today and smiling,” said Hawes, adding that he tried to follow their example of “making a difference in this world.”
Beverly Hawes praised the many people who had worked together to bring to fruition such an extraordinary building. “All of what you are witnessing today is the result of a spectacular collaboration of a community that operated at its best and finest capacity,” she said. She credited Dean Kim B. Clark for choosing such “vital and capable associates,” whom she described as “a collection of superior minds and diverse talents who were all directed to the same purpose.”
Sharing the podium with the Haweses were Dean Clark; Student Association copresidents Annemarie Jensen and Sal Khan (both HBS '03); Cahal Stephens, president and CEO of Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture & Engineering; and Peter Campot, CEO of William A. Berry & Son, Inc. Praising the Haweses for their hands-on participation and vision of the project, which included ensuring that there was ample informal gathering space throughout the building, Clark said, “Rod and Beverly had a real sense of what this building ought to be, and they wanted to get it just right — and it is.”
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