Paul W. Hankins; 1929-2014: Labor exec believed in fairness

5/30/2014

Paul W. Hankins, 84, a personnel and labor relations executive, died Monday in his West Toledo home. He had cancer, his daughter Annette said.

He retired in January, 2003, from the University of Tole-do, where he worked for more than 13 years and served as employee-involvement facilitator of the Northwest Ohio Center for Labor-Management Cooperation.

He had wide-ranging duties at Sisters of Mercy Health Systems North, where for much of the 1980s he was director of corporate services.

Mr. Hankins’ career began with the R.H. Macy & Co. in 1956 as a member of the training squad for the department store chain’s Bamberger’s division. He later was a supervisor of the Bamberger’s Newark, N.J., store and was personnel manager of the Paramus, N.J., store. He later was assigned to Toledo and Lasalle’s department store by Macy’s.

He was a member of Lasalle’s executive committee and administrative board and, in 1969, was promoted to vice president and director of personnel. He believed it important to the country that people were able to earn a living, that people who worked hard were rewarded, and that no one was taken advantage of.

“He was good with people,” his daughter said. “He believed in being fair.”

He formerly was a leader in legislative affairs with the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce.

He was born July 30, 1929, to May Hankins, who was unmarried and a teenager. He was adopted as an infant by her aunt and uncle, Margaret and John Hankins, and grew up in Elizabeth, N.J. He was a graduate of Seton Hall and Rutgers universities and had a master of business administration degree.

He was a retired captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve, in which he served 43 years, and was still interested in sailing. He was a former president of the Naval Reserve Association in the Toledo area and the Navy League.

He was a member of American Legion Post 335 and Catholic War Veterans Posts 369 and 639 and had been usher, lector, and eucharistic minister at Gesu Church.

Surviving are his wife, Marilyn, whom he married June 1, 1952; daughters, Kathleen Hankins, Annette Smith, Teresa Johnson, Laura Sharp, and Eileen Decker; 11 grandchildren, and two great-grandsons.

Services will be at 11 a.m. today in Gesu Church. Arrangements are by the Walker Funeral Home. The family suggests tributes to Our Lady of Toledo Shrine; Gesu School; St. Ursula Academy, or a religious or educational institution of the donor’s choice.

Contact Mark Zaborney at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.