Malcolm David Lytle Hawk

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, on the 17th of April 1942, to Dr. Malcolm Henry Hawk and Margaret (Lytle) Hawk, Malcolm grew up in Sharon, Pennsylvania, and Palo Alto, California, where he attended Palo Alto High School. He graduated from Princeton University in 1964 with an honors degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and received his law degree from Stanford Law School in 1967. He was a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States and the bars of California, the District of Columbia, and Texas.

Malcolm began his legal career as a law clerk for Judge Walter Craig, Chief United States District Judge for Arizona. He then joined the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., first in the Land and Natural Resources Division, then as Deputy Special Assistant to the Attorney General, and finally in the Deputy Attorney General’s office. He next went to Capitol Hill as legislative assistant to Senator Roman Hruska of Nebraska and minority counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he helped guide the confirmation hearings of four Supreme Court justices. In 1973, Malcolm re-joined the Justice Department as head of the Legislative Affairs Division and Director of the Office of Criminal Justice.

In 1974, Malcolm and his family moved to Houston, where he began a long and distinguished legal career with Exxon, retiring in 2002. Over nearly three decades, he served in numerous leadership roles in the legal department, including positions in Houston, Dallas, New Jersey/New York, Brussels, and Singapore. His work took him around the globe. In Brussels, he was General Counsel for Exxon Chemical Europe and the Middle East and chairman of the European General Counsels group. In Singapore, he served as General Counsel for Esso Singapore and then became General Counsel for the newly merged Exxon and Mobil assets throughout Asia and the Pacific.

He relished his years in Washington, D.C., and his career at ExxonMobil, especially the final decade in Brussels and Singapore that led to lasting relationships with colleagues from around the world. He also enthusiastically embraced retirement, which lasted twenty-four years. When asked how much time he regretted retiring when he did, his answer was always, “It doesn’t reach a minute yet.”

Beyond his professional life, Malcolm served on several charitable boards, including the Christian Community Service Center Foundation in Houston and the Yampa Valley Community Foundation in Colorado, and chaired the board of Inwood Manor. He was also a longtime member of the Briar Club in Houston and the Royal Scots Club in Edinburgh.

For more than forty years, Malcolm and his family maintained a home in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where they loved to spend Christmas and the summer months in the beautiful Yampa Valley. He had a lifelong interest in history and in domestic and international political events; at the age of 10, he began writing letters to major world figures and was thrilled to receive a reply from a British lady-in-waiting that began, “The Queen has commanded me to write…”

A passionate traveler, he visited all seven continents and more than a hundred countries—many more than once—often organizing trips that brought friends and family together. He published his autobiography, Three by 33, in 2011.

Even with all of these accomplishments, Malcolm was most proud of his family, especially his cherished wife, Kathleen Samsot of New Orleans, to whom he was married for almost fifty-seven years; his three children, David Charles Hawk (Jay McBride) of San Francisco, Amy Elizabeth Hawk of Houston, and Eleanor Kathleen Gray (Brent Gray) of Bainbridge Island, Washington; and his three granddaughters, Dylan, Avery, and Reese Gray.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Margaret and Malcolm Henry Hawk; his brother, Charles Hawk; and his sister-in-law, Rosemary Hawk.

Malcolm will be remembered as a man of integrity and generosity, a loving husband and father, a wise counselor, a loyal friend, and an inveterate traveler. He lived a long and happy life filled with adventure, meaningful accomplishments, and a quiet appreciation for all that the world has to offer.

A memorial service is to be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Monday, the 1st of June, at St. Philip Presbyterian Church, 4807 San Felipe Street in Houston, where Assistant Pastor, Rev. Keaton King is to officiate.

Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception to be held at the church.

In lieu of customary remembrances, memorial contributions may be directed to Doctors Without Borders at doctorswithoutborders.org or Princeton University at makeagift.princeton.edu

Please visit Mr. Hawk’s online memorial tribute at GeoHLewis.com where memories and words of comfort and condolence may be shared with his family.