From the frozen Arctic tundra to the stunning landscapes of Kenya, Bob and Ginny Hawk have lived extraordinary chapters of a life few could imagine. But when the plane lands, when the suitcases are unpacked, their compass always points to one place — Iola, Kansas.
Now, as they’re named City Marshals for Iola’s 2025 Farm City Days, the Hawks say they’re honored to represent the community that has anchored their lives for more than 50 years.
“We’ve been to a lot of places, but there’s something about Iola,” Bob said. “The people, the pace, the sense of knowing who your neighbors are. You just don’t get that anywhere else.”
BOB GREW up on a farm nine miles northeast of Iola, surrounded by cows, hogs, sheep, and chickens. “My parents moved here from Oklahoma in 1939,” the 81-year-old said. “That farm is still my reference point in life.”
He attended Carlyle grade school, where his first teacher was also his closest neighbor. “She’d known me since I was born,” Bob recalled. “I was seven days past the age cutoff for starting school, but she let me in anyway. I haven’t been the same since.”
After graduating from Iola High School in 1961 and completing two years at Iola Junior College — then housed in the high school’s upper floor — Bob pursued his many interests before settling on meteorology. “Everything we did on the farm depended on the weather,” he said. “It made sense.”
That decision took him to the University of Kansas, where he earned a degree in meteorology and the start of a journey that would take him halfway around the world and into the arms of his future wife.
THE COUPLE’S story together began not in Iola, but in Wichita, where Ginny grew up. Fate — and a mutual friend — brought them together at a wedding in 1964, where Bob was an usher and Ginny was serving punch.
“I think she slipped me a Mickey,” Bob joked. That encounter led to a date and a keepsake Ginny has treasured ever since.
“I’ve kept the dress I wore on our first date all these years,” she said, smiling. “After 51 years, my daughter tried it on the other night and it fit perfectly.”
Their courtship continued across states and seasons. While Bob finished school, he spent a summer in the Arctic working for the U.S. Weather Service. Stationed about 600 miles from the North Pole in a place called Resolute Bay, Bob found himself operating bulldozers instead of studying clouds.
“I thought I’d be doing research,” he said, laughing. “Instead, I ran bulldozers — building roads out to weather stations. They told me, ‘Go build a road out to this anemometer site.’ So I did. Being a farm kid, it wasn’t that big a deal.”
The couple married in 1965 to a life marked by service and travel. Bob joined the Air Force, with assignments stretching from Texas to Guam. Their first daughter was born at an Army hospital, the second at a Navy hospital in Guam, and their youngest at a medical center in Wichita.
WITH SEVEN years in active duty and 18 in the Air National Guard, Bob would eventually retire as a lieutenant colonel. By 1974, he and Ginny were ready to plant roots. “I said, Iola’s probably as good a place as any to do nothing,’” Bob laughed.
When they moved to Iola, Ginny admits she wasn’t sure what to expect.
“Wichita was home for me,” she said. “But moving here was the best decision we ever made. I’ve never regretted it. It’s safe, friendly and the kind of place where your kids can walk to school and everyone knows who they belong to.”
