DR. WALTER REX HAWKINS

02/06/1932 - 03/08/2023

Dr. Walter Rex Hawkins (Rex) passed away on March 8, 2023 at the age of ninetyone, after a brief battle with cancer. Rex was born on February 6, 1932 to the late John Rex Hawkins and Mildred Beckman Hawkins, Rex’s loving father and mother.

Rex was born in Tampa, Florida and raised in Coral Gables, Florida. Following high school, Rex sought a chemical engineering degree at the Georgia Institute of Technology. After graduating with honors, he crossed town and began medical studies at Emory University of Medicine.

At Emory, Rex romanced the only female student in the class, Edith Eleanor Petrie, and won her everlasting affection and love. They married midway through their medical studies. Rex pursued postgraduate training in ophthalmology and retina disease and surgery, culminating at Massachusetts Eye and

Ear Infirmary, an affiliate of Harvard University, and the Schepens Eye Institute. He and Edith moved to Houston where Rex commenced private practice and Edith pursued studies in pediatric pathology at Baylor University School of Medicine, subsequently joining the staff at Texas Children’s Hospital.

Rex practiced medicine for over fifty years, finally retiring in 2021. He was a member of The Retina Society, the American Academy of Ophthalmology and served as Chief for Ophthalmology at Park Plaza Hospital for many years. For two of the primary retina problems that required his attention, diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration, Rex prescribed a very low sodium diet that provided great health benefits. This approach has been receiving increased acceptance in the specialty of retinal disease. Rex wrote a book about this approach to healthy living called Eat Right-Electrolyte: A Nutritional Guide to Minerals in Our Daily Diet.

Rex enjoyed working in his yard, carefully tending to his plants and sharing those plants and trees with his family and friends; he relished spending time with his family at the family lake house on Lake Burton, Georgia, even creating a new way to water ski using a red round disc as a platform; he loved dogs, even rescuing a black lab with a broken leg who had been abandoned in the medical center; and, he was gratified when he could use his medical knowledge for the benefit of his family and friends.

Rex is preceded in death by his parents, John Rex Hawkins and Mildred Beckman Hawkins. Rex is survived by his wife, Edith Petrie Hawkins, his daughter, Christa Hawkins Hash and her husband, Steven Vincent Hash, their two children, Vincent Reed Hash and Lynne Marie Hash Rosado and husband, Tony Rosado, who have one child; his son, Alex Read Hawkins and wife, Natalie Whitlock Hawkins ,their two children, Cody Duncan Hawkins and Brandon Matisse Hawkins; and his youngest daughter, Stacie Hawkins Keeble and her husband, Robert Leslie Keeble.

A memorial service is to be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Saturday, April 1, 2023 in the sanctuary of Willow Meadows Baptist Church, where the Pastor, Craig Taylor, is to officiate. Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception in the Welcome Center. In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Dr. Hawkins may be directed to Braes Interfaith Ministries, 4300 West Belfort, Houston, Texas 77035.