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What’s In the Name George W. Hawkes Central Library?
Hawkes Fits An Institution Built On Knowledge
How fitting that an Arlington Public Library is
named after a man who used words to help grow a
city. George W. Hawkes was the longtime publisher of
the Arlington Citizen-Journal, the predecessor of
the Arlington Star-Telegram and the last newspaper
this city could rightfully call its own. He came to
Arlington in the mid-40s and bought a struggling
weekly called the Arlington Citizen.
Eleven years later, he’d scoop up the competing
Arlington Journal and merge the two into the
semi-weekly Arlington Citizen-Journal. Over some
30-plus years, he shaped Arlington journalism as a
disciplined, well-respected journalist with the best
interest of the community at heart.
Former Mayor Tom Vandergriff, whose tenure coincided
with Hawkes’ newspaper career, once told the
Star-Telegram that Hawkes was “as near all things to
all people as anyone I’ve ever known.” And this:
“Arlington marks its modern-day time from the point
that George Hawkes came to our community.”
Born in 1916 in Weimar, Hawkes is said to have
started writing newspaper articles are early as age
12. At 18, he was publisher and editor of the
Flatonia Argus in Flatonia. He attended Baylor
University before the Great Depression forced him to
return to daily journalism. World War II put him in
the Army Air Corps.
Hawkes was an active member and deacon of First
Baptist Church, the downtown Rotary Club and the
Texas Press Association, of which he rose to
president.
When Star-Telegram Publisher Amon Carter Jr. bought
majority control of the Citizen-Journal, he kept
Hawkes and his brother, Charles, also an editor, in
charge of the news side.
Hawkes is credited with bringing new life to the
Arlington Chamber of Commerce after World War II and
was a founding director of Arlington Christmas
Samaritans, now Arlington Goodfellows. He’s past
president of the Arlington YMCA and served on the
Arlington Library Board. In 1994, Arlington renamed
the Central Library in his honor. Hawkes died in
June 2004 at age 87.
Source: Star-Telegram news archives and Central
Library files
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