Forbes Hawkes

Robert Forbes Hawkes (August 25, 1865 – August 24, 1940) was an American physician and surgeon who was prominent in New York society during the Gilded Age.

Early life Hawkes was born in New York City on August 25, 1865 and Eliza DeForest (née Forbes; 1823–1913). His father was a professor at Trinity College in Connecticut, and an amateur farmer in Sing Sing, New York.

His early education was in Tours and Paris in France, and Marburg, Germany before graduating from Yale University in 1887. After Yale, he attended the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, graduating in 1891.

Hawkes also served as the head of the dispensary for New York Presbyterian Hospital and was a consulting surgeon at the New York Presbyterian Hospital in Queens, the Loomis Sanitarium, North-Western Dispensary and several others. He was also a professor of Clinical Surgery at the Post-Graduate Hospital (today known as the New York University School of Medicine). Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom. Hawkes was a member of the Union Club of the City of New York, the University Club, the Century Association, and the Piping Rock Club. He belonged to the St. Nicholas Society and was surgeon of the Society of the Cincinnati. daughter of William Richardson Belknap, the president of the Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company. Together, they lived at 124 East 65th Street and were the parents of a son and a daughter: on August 24, 1940. After a funeral at his home, he was buried at Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut. His widow died in 1972.