Topeka Capital-Journal (Topeka, Kansas)
Aug. 9, 2005
C. Robert Bob Haywood, 83, died Saturday, Aug. 6, 2005, in Topeka. He was Vice President of Academic Affairs at Washburn University from 1969 to 1982, when he returned to teaching as Distinguished Professor of History. He also served as Dean of the College from 1969 to 1981, Provost, 1981 to 1982, and Secretary of the Board of Regents, 1973 to 1982. He retired from Washburn as Professor Emeritus in 1988. Previously, he taught and served as Dean of the College at Southwestern College, Winfield, from 1948 to 1966, and as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Millikin University, Decatur, Ill., from 1966 to 1969. Bob Haywood was born Aug. 27, 1921, on the family farm in Ford County, Kan., the son of Clarence O. Haywood and Elsie May Long Haywood. He graduated from Fowler, Kan., High School and Dodge City Junior College, and received a Bachelor of Arts in 1947 and a Master of Arts in 1948 from the University of Kansas, and a Doctor of Philosophy in history from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1956. As an undergraduate, he was active in track (he was on the Kansas Juco champion mile relay team), forensics and dramatics.
He served as a medical corpsman in the Navy from 1941 to 1945, and served in the Pacific Theatre, including the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Dean Haywood was awarded an honorary undergraduate degree from Southwestern College in 1983, and was elected to the Dodge City Community College Hall of Fame in 1994. He was recognized as Outstanding Teacher by students at Southwestern College in 1966, and by students at Washburn in 1982. During his leadership at Washburn, 12 new departments and/or majors were added, television credit courses, honors programs, School of Business and Associates Arts programs were created, and he played a critical role in moving the school to the status of an Urban University. He received a citation by faculty and students of the Washburn School of Nursing for initiation and implementation in 1982, and the Founders Award by the Department of Psychology in 1986. He was a frequent speaker, and was a member of the Kansas Humanities Council Speakers Bureau from 1985 to 1998. He was the author of eight books and numerous journal articles on higher education and western and southern history. His book, Victorian West, received the Westerners International Award for Best Non-Fiction Book on the West in 1991. He also received the Kansas Historical Societys Excellence in Writing award in 1981, and again in 1985. In 2003 he was honored by the Kansas Heritage Center in Dodge City for his contributions to books on Kansas history, and most recently, received the Cowboy Historian Award by the Boot Hill Museum at Dodge City.
He was a member of Phi Alpha Theta, Countryside United Methodist Church, Fortnightly Club of Topeka, Friends of Mabee Library, Kansas Historical Society (President in 1992), Stillwater National Conference of Deans (President in 1966, Southern Historical Association and Ford County Historical Society.
He married L. Marie Stephenson Haywood on Jan. 2, 1943, in Kittery, Maine. She survives. Other survivors include one daughter, Sandra Marie Jarvis, Coldwater, Kan.; two sons, Robert Alan Haywood, Austin, Texas, and Ray C. Haywood, Tecumseh; seven grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; one step grandchild and three step great-grandchildren.
Graveside services, followed by Military Rites, will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday in the Fowler, Kan., Cemetery, with the Rev. Dick Robbins officiating. The family will receive visitors at the Fowler Senior Center immediately after the services. Memorial contributions may be made to the C. Robert and Marie Haywood Scholarship Fund, Southwestern College at Winfield, for the C. Robert Haywood Scholarship Fund, Washburn University, Topeka, in care of Fidler-Orme-Bachman Mortuary, P.O. Box 70, Meade, Kan. 67864.
Haywood was inducted into the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2005.
Ford County Historical Society is honored to have been entrusted with Dr. Haywood’s collection of books as well as his notes, papers, and manuscripts. The collection is quite extensive and the archival process is ongoing. We will update this page as our work progresses.
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