Joseph Hawkins Jr.
Joseph Hawkins Jr., professor emeritus at the Kresge Hearing Research Institute, died Oct. 6 in Ann Arbor. He was 94.
He was a physiologist and morphologist, a psychoacoustician, a student of animal behavior, a biochemist and a historian of auditory science. His research appeared in publications spanning from 1939-2006.
In 1963 Hawkins joined the faculty at U-M and the newly founded Kresge Hearing Research Institute. There he added novel behavioral assessments to his studies on ototoxicity in collaboration with his colleagues William Stebbins and David Moody. He also continued in his interest in noise trauma and defined the role of stria vascularis and vasoconstriction. Finally, his attention turned to auditory and vestibular changes with aging.
In 1994 Hawkins became emeritus professor and he continued his pursuits of science and scholarship. His recent years were devoted to one of his great hobbies, researching and writing on the history of otolaryngology.
Together with S.S. Stevens, he published seminal papers in the psychoacoustics of auditory masking and on auditory evoked potentials. He was known for his work on otopathology, particularly on the ototoxicity of aminoglycoside antibiotics. Others may recall his contributions to our knowledge of the cytoarchitecture and vascular patterns of the inner ear or his work on the physiological and traumatic effects of noise that refined our view of the anatomy and pathology of the inner ear.
Hawkins graduated in 1933 from Baylor University, where he returned 50 years later in his retirement as a distinguished visiting professor teaching undergraduate courses in anatomy.
Following a year of graduate study at Brown, he attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, leaving in 1937 with a bachelor’s degree. He then enrolled at Harvard University, where in 1941 he earned a doctoral degree in medical sciences.
He moved to Wake Forest University (1945-46) and then to the Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research (1946-56). It was there that he first explored the auditory and vestibular effects of the newly discovered aminoglycoside antibiotics, a line of research that became a life-long fascination.
He returned to academia in 1956 to an appointment at the New York University Medical School Department of Otolaryngology. He visited Hans Engström in Sweden (1961-63), and made one of the earliest uses of the surface preparation as a superior technique for studying inner ear structure.
Later in his career he returned to Oxford to complete a Master of Arts degree in 1966 and Doctor of Science degree in 1979.
His honors include the Award of Merit of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, the Distinguished Achievement and the Distinguished Alumnus Awards of Baylor College, the Gold Medal for Basic Science of the Prosper Menière Society, and he was awarded the medals of the cities of Pleven, Bulgaria, and Bordeaux, France.
His wife Jane preceded him in death in 2002. He is survived by sons Richard, Peter, James and William, a daughter Priscilla, and their spouses and children.
The family requests that remembrances to the memory of Joe Hawkins be made to the Merle Lawrence/Joseph Hawkins Lectureship Fund, University of Michigan, Kresge Hearing Research Institute, 1150 West Medical Center Drive, 4605 Medical Science II, Ann Arbor, MI 48109- 5616.
— Submitted by Jochen Schacht, Kresge Hearing Research Institute
