Longtime UTEP Business Professor, Alumna Remembered

Originally published March 25, 2016

By Leonard Martinez and Lauren Macias-Cervantes

UTEP Communications

Lola Dawkins, Ph.D., a 1954 business graduate from Texas Western College (now UTEP) and former UTEP business professor, died March 18, 2016 in El Paso. She was 102.

She celebrated her birthday in late December with family and friends in Central El Paso.

“She was very happy at the birthday party,” her niece, Carol Ann Olachia, said. “She had not been in the greatest of health a couple of months prior to that. She was very ecstatic to have family and friends around.”

Dawkins was an award-winning professor emerita of marketing and management who joined the UTEP faculty in 1965 and retired in 1984.

Dawkins is well remembered by her students and built a reputation as a tough grader. When asked in December what her favorite part of teaching was, Dawkins’ eyes lit up and she said with a smile, “I didn’t think of myself as a teacher. I created the climate for learning.”

She shared that she liked when students contacted her or sent her cards thanking her and sharing their success.

“In my eulogy that I will give Saturday (at Dawkins’ funeral services), I say that she was very proud of her tenure at UTEP and very honored to be professor emerita and to be a Gold Nugget,” Olachia said.

Dawkins was recognized as a Gold Nugget Award recipient in 1998. The award recognizes the achievements and dedication of UTEP alumni from each of the University’s colleges and schools.

Her family added that Dawkins would tell people not to mourn for her.

“Our loss is heaven’s gain,” Olachia said. “She was 102 and lived a full life.”

There’s no question Dawkins impacted the lives of those inside and outside her classroom. Jackson Curlin is one former student who became a family friend and hosted Dawkins’ 102nd birthday gathering.

“I feel fortunate to know her,” Curlin said in December. “I think it’s wonderful she’s lived this many years. I feel certain that her legacy, if it has touched 100,000 people, it will soon touch 1 million people because of the students that she has turned out and students that continue to benefit from her generosity.”

Even after her retirement, Dawkins maintained her ties to the University through volunteer work with organizations such as the Heritage Commission and scholarship funds that benefit business students.

One of Dawkins’ favorite UTEP assignments was leading the team that oversaw the design of UTEP’s Business Administration Building, which opened in 1982. She also led the committees that recommended the building’s furnishings and equipment.

Despite beating UTEP to the century mark, Dawkins still attended campus events and enjoyed speaking with and advising students at scholarship functions, even in her last years.

“I am just proud to be part of UTEP, to have gone to Texas Western,” Dawkins said in December.

 

Funeral Service Information

The family will celebrate the life of Lola B. Dawkins at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, March 26, 2016 at First Baptist Church, 805 Montana Ave. at 1:30 pm. Visitation will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.