Background
Hawkins was born to second generation Swedish immigrant parents in the Twin Cities. His father Carl died in 1940, and his mother Elsie raised him alongside his two sisters Hazel and Helen.
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Howard Hawkins
Edit ProfileEducation
In 1950, he graduated from Minnehaha Academy and joined the United States Navy, followed by technical school at Dunwoody Institute, learning welding and blacksmithing.
Career
He is considered one of the pioneers in the bicycle industry. He died January 26, 2015 of a heart attack in Arizona. In 1956, Hawkins purchased "Hazel Park Radio and Bicycle" on White Bear Avenue and East 7th Street in Saint Paul, Minnesota"s Hazel Park neighborhood along with his boyhood friend and business partner Art Engstrom.
They opened a small bicycle repair shop, repairing and selling Schwinn bicycles.
Foreign their convenience, they invented a bike stand that lifted a bike off the ground and could swivel it around. In 1963, after introducing the stand to the Schwinn Bicycle Company and building them for Schwinn dealerships, they started a bicycle tools business they named Park Tool.
They expanded to wheel truing stands, a variety of other tools and eventually tools for average cyclists. In 1967, they moved their store to White Bear Avenue and Highway 36, which grew to become "Park Schwinn", a national top-10 Schwinn Bicycle Company dealership, eventually with three locations.
In 1981, they sold all stores to concentrate on the bicycle tool business they had been running alongside the retail stores.
The small tool company grew and became the world"s largest supplier of bicycle tools, Park Tool Company, now in Oakdale, Minnesota. In 2003, Hawkins retired. But his death last week reminded us of the impact his life had on the lives of cyclists and mechanics the world over".
As of February 2015 Park Tool sold nearly 300 different tools to bike repair shops in America, Europe and Asia, "identifiable by their trademarked shade of blue: Pantone 2935".
Private He took up auto repair as a hobby and "never stopped riding his bike, a 1960 Schwinn Paramount". In the winters the couple would live in Scottsdale, Arizona.
On January 26, 2015 he died of complications related to a heart attack a few days after coronary stent surgery in Scottsdale, Arizona. He is buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.
