John Hawn ’44: Sharing A Century of Albany Academy Experiences - and Looking Ahead.

John Hawn thinks of his Albany Academy kindergarten classmates and sees the five-year-olds as the men they would become: Bob Olcott, future valedictorian and Academy math teacher; Winthrop Stevens, who would work for DuPont; Bill Swire and Paul Crane, who both went to Yale.

These were friends he met more than 90 years ago. 

“I was very happy with my Academy education and have spent many years supporting the school as a trustee and parent,” he said, during an interview in the Schellenberger Alumni/Alumnae Center, which, he noted, was once a dorm. 

Hawn, who turns 100 in August, started during the Great Depression and graduated the year of the Normandy invasion. Dressed in a crisp navy blue suit, light blue oxford and his red and blue striped Academy tie, he discussed his long roots at the school.

Growing up down the street, Hawn recalled a harness track previously on the site, which became the school’s running track. He was there in 1929 to see Gov. Franklin Delano Roosevelt lay the cornerstone for the current main building. When it officially opened in 1931, he was in the first kindergarten class. 

Hawn can look back even further because his mother, Sarah Powell Hawn, graduated from Albany Academy for Girls in 1918, at its downtown location.  

“My mother lived in Coeymans,” he said. “She took the train and got off at Albany. If the train was late and she was late to school, she went to the movies instead.” 

Living close by, Hawn sometimes stayed late and explored with a classmate, even discovering areas that were supposed to be off limits. One day, they saw a ladder and climbed up to discover a large space over the gym that no one but the janitor knew about. Decades later, when Hawn was a trustee, the school took his recommendation to convert the area into science labs. 

Hawn took part in Lower School theater, where the boys played both the male and female parts.  “I was in HMS Pinafore, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance,” he recalled. “I tried out for captain in Pinafore and didn’t make it. I wound up being a sailor.” 

Hawn, whose favorite subject was American history, thought highly of all his teachers. He played football, basketball and baseball, and was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010. 

He recalled the 1942 City Championship football game between undefeated rivals, Academy and Albany High School. It was a cold day and the only score happened when an Albany High School player fumbled the ball and it rolled into the end zone.  Academy’s Don Candlyn, fell on it, scoring a 2-point safety to clinch victory. Teammate James “Dutch” Scholtz ’45 remained among his closest friends.

After attending Williams College for one year, Hawn’s appointment came through, and he transferred to West Point. After graduating in 1949, Hawn joined the new U.S. Air Force, and served in the Korean War as a night reconnaissance pilot. After four years of service, he returned home and joined his father’s business as a manufacturer’s representative for heating and plumbing equipment.

Hawn served as president of the Alumni Association, president of the Board of Trustees and later a member of the Board of Visitors. He raised money for the Robison Hockey Rink and Picotte Fieldhouse and has endowed a scholarship.  

“I went here for 13 years. I like to think I’m helping them continue,” understated Hawn, who won the Outstanding Alumnus Award. 

Just as important, he can speak with authority about Girls Academy. In addition to his mother, Hawn’s two sisters attended - as did his four daughters: Margaret Hawn ’69, who was an obstetrician; Sarah Hawn ’71, who worked at McGraw Hill; Barbara Hawn ’73, who practiced internal medicine, and Martha Hawn Rossi, (graduated from Guilderland High School) who became a CPA.

“They all got a really good education,” he said. “I am very much in favor of merging the two schools. I know it has a great future.”